Developmental methylation pattern regulates porcine GPR120 expression
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Updated: Mar 25, 2026

Optimized Analysis of DNA Methylation and Gene Expression from Small, Anatomically-defined Areas of the Brain
Published on: July 12, 2012
1Institute of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an, Sichuan, China.
Abstract:
DNA methylation is an important component of the epigenetic machinery and plays a critical role in transcriptional regulation. It mostly occurs in CpG abundant regions, known as CpG islands (CGIs). G protein-coupled receptor 120 (GPR120) functions as an omega-3 fatty acid receptor and is involved in multiple-biological processes, including lipogenesis. Herein, we show that GPR120 is highly expressed in porcine mature adipose tissue and is positively associated with adipose tissue development (r = 0.86, P < 0.01). We also predicted 5 CGIs across the GPR120 genomic sequence and investigated their methylation status using the MassArray approach. Our results show that these CGIs exhibit significantly different methylation states (P(CGI) < 0.01), and that the DNA methylation of GPR120 5ꞌ-untranslated and first exon regions can negatively regulate its expression levels. This study will aid further investigations on the epigenetic mechanism regulating GPR120 expression.
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