Over 80% of NotI sites are associated with CpG rich islands in the sequenced human DNA

Clones containing DNA segments linked to NotI sites are not only useful for ordering the NotI fragments fractionated by pulsed field gel, but also valuable in the search of unknown genes, because they often contain the CpG rich islands and genes related with them. To know the probability of association of NotI sites with CpG rich islands, we screened 5,188 sequences accumulated in DNA data base for the presence of NotI site and examined the distribution of CpGs around them. The sequential calculation of G + C content and frequency of CpG occurrence at each nucleotide position identified the CpG rich domains close to NotI sites in 77 sequences, which corresponds to 84% of total number of candidate sequences. This frequency is consistent well with the prediction that 89% of NotI sites in mammalian genome are likely to be present in CpG rich islands and would stress the importance of cloning of NotI linking sequences for direct isolation of desired genes. Furthermore, 63 islands newly identified in this study should provide a clue for understanding the transcriptional regulation of associated genes.