Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 29, 2026

Comprehensive DNA Methylation Analysis Using a Methyl-CpG-binding Domain Capture-based Method in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Patients
Published on: June 16, 2017
Hemi-methylated CpG sites connect Dnmt1-knockdown-induced and Tet1-induced DNA demethylation during somatic cell
Songwei He1, Fuhui Wang1,2,3,4, Yixin Zhang1,2,3,4
11CAS Key Laboratory of Regenerative Biology, Hefei Institute of Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Joint School of Life Sciences, Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou Medical University, 510530 Guangzhou, China.
Abstract:
The relationship between active DNA demethylation induced by overexpressing Tet1 and passive DNA demethylation induced by suppressing Dnmt1 remains unclear. Here, we found that DNMT1 preferentially methylated, but TET1 preferentially demethylated, hemi-methylated CpG sites. These phenomena resulted in a significant overlap in the targets of these two types of DNA demethylation and the counteractions of Dnmt1 and Tet1 during somatic cell reprogramming. Since the hemi-methylated CpG sites generated during cell proliferation were enriched at core pluripotency loci, DNA demethylation induced by Tet1 or sh-RNA against Dnmt1 (sh-Dnmt1) was enriched in these loci, which, in combination with Yamanaka factors, led to the up-regulation of these genes and promoted somatic cell reprogramming. In addition, since sh-Dnmt1 induces DNA demethylation by impairing the further methylation of hemi-methylated CpG sites generated during cell proliferation, while Tet1 induced DNA demethylation by demethylating these hemi-methylated CpG sites, Tet1-induced DNA demethylation, compared with sh-Dnmt1-induced DNA demethylation, exhibited a higher ability to open the chromatin structure and up-regulate gene expression. Thus, Tet1-induced but not sh-Dnmt1-induced DNA demethylation led to the up-regulation of an additional set of genes that can promote the epithelial-mesenchymal transition and impair reprogramming. When vitamin C was used to further increase the demethylation ability of TET1 during reprogramming, Tet1 induced a larger up-regulation of these genes and significantly impaired reprogramming. Therefore, the current studies provide additional information regarding DNA demethylation during somatic cell reprogramming.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Somatic to iPS Cell Reprogramming
Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
Somatic...
Induced-fit Model
Enzymes exhibit substrate specificity, meaning that they can only bind to certain substrates. This is mainly determined by the shape and chemical...
Conserved Binding Sites
Binding sites are often located in large pockets, and if their location on a protein’s surface is unknown, it can be predicted using various approaches. The energetic method computationally...
Genomic Imprinting and Inheritance
The expression of some genes depends on which parent passed the gene to the offspring, through a phenomenon known as...

