Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 17, 2026

Detection of Modified Forms of Cytosine Using Sensitive Immunohistochemistry
Published on: August 16, 2016
Are there specific readers of oxidized 5-methylcytosine bases?
1Department of Biochemistry, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA. jikui.song@ucr.edu.
Abstract:
5-methylcytosine (5mC) was long thought to be the only enzymatically created modified DNA base in mammalian cells. The discovery of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine, 5-formylcytosine, and 5-carboxylcytosine as reaction products of the TET family 5mC oxidases has prompted extensive searches for proteins that specifically bind to these oxidized bases. However, only a few of such "reader" proteins have been identified and verified so far. In this review, we discuss potential biological functions of oxidized 5mC as well as the role the presumed reader proteins may play in interpreting the genomic signals of 5mC oxidation products.
Related Concept Videos
Mismatch Repair
The Mutator Protein Family Plays a Key Role in DNA Mismatch Repair
The human genome has more than 3 billion base pairs of DNA per cell. Prior to cell division, that vast amount of genetic...
Mismatch Repair
Base Excision Repair
The first step of...
Base Excision Repair
Proofreading
Proofreading
Errors During Replication are Corrected by the DNA Polymerase...

