Study of DNA methylation and gene expression during development of male reproductive organs. -Global analysis of DNA methylation using Restriction Landmark Genomic Scanning (RLGS) method-

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Neonatal C57BL/6 mice were exposed to 3 μg/pup/day of synthetic estrogen, diethylstilbestrol(DBS). At day 30, epididymidis (from male mice) and uteri (from female mice) were teken, and their status of DNA methylation were analyzed using restriction landmark genomic scanning method (RLGS). In epididymis and uterus, the methylation of 7 and 11 loci (out of about 1000 loci) were changed, respectively. Then lower dose of DBS (0.3、0.03、0.003 μg/pup/day) were examined, and clear dose dependency of the methylation change was observed.We analyzed the loci those methylation were changed by DBS. Four loci from epididymis and 3 loci from uterus were cloned, and the characteristics of them such as GC content, chromosomal distribution, neighbor genes were examined. Four loci from epididymis were near from zinc finger protein, RNA helicase, protein kinase associated gene, retinal disease associated gene, respectively. Three loci from uterus were not close to known genes.The mechanism by which methylation was changed, and the effect of that change on development of male reproductive organs remained to be elucidated.