Abstracts (poster) - Wissenschaft Online

Yingying Zhang, Christian Rohde, Sascha Tierling, Heinrich Stamerjohanns, Matthias
Platzer, Richard Reinhardt, Jörn Walter, Albert Jeltsch
NAME21: The National Methylome Project of Human
Chromosome 21
DNA methylation is an essential epigenetic event involved in development, gene
regulation, imprinting and preserving genome integrity. In the National Methylome
Project for chromosome 21 (NAME21), we analyzed the DNA methylation pattern of 291
amplicons for 190 gene promoters in leukocytes, HEK293, HepG2 and fibroblast cells.
The comparison of the methylation profiles revealed that a fraction of genes is differently
methylated among the tissues. A strong correlation of high methylation in gene
promoter with low gene expression and high expression with low methylation was
demonstrated in HEK293 and leukocytes. The results also indicated that there is a strong
correlation between the absence of DNA methylation and the presence of histone H3 K4
trimethylation and H3 K9/K14 acetylation up to distance of 1000 bps. The analysis of
gene ontology using genes with methylated or unmethylated promoters revealed
overrepresentation of genes in distinct ontology categories. These results documented
an important effect of DNA methylation on both cellular physiology and morphology. A
bioinformatics analysis of the differently methylated promoter regions revealed an
overrepresentation of several transcription factor binding sites. Additionally, several
regions with allele specific methylation pattern were identified.
contact:
PhD student Yingying Zhang
Jacobs University Bremen
School of Engineering and Science
y.zhang@jacobs-university.de
Campus Ring 1
28759 Bremen (Germany)
additional information
Corresponding Author:
a.jeltsch@jacobs-university.de
Address:
Jörn Walter and Sascha Tierling
Institut für Genetik, FB Biowissenschaften, Universität des Saarlandes, Postfach 151150, D-66041
Saarbrücken, Germany
Matthias Platzer
Fritz-Lipmann-Institut, Beutenbergstrasse 11, D-07745 Jena, Germany
Richard Reinhardt
Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Ihnestrasse 63-73, D-14195 Berlin-Dahlem, Germany