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Updated: Jun 6, 2025
Methyl-binding DNA capture Sequencing for Patient Tissues
Published on: October 31, 2016
SAM-DNMT3A, a strategy for induction of genome-wide DNA methylation, identifies DNA methylation as a vulnerability in
Mahnaz Hosseinpour1,2,3, Xinqi Xi1, Ling Liu1
1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Cancer program, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Abstract:
DNA methylation is an epigenetic mark that plays a critical role in regulating gene expression. DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) inhibitors, inhibit global DNA methylation and have been a key tool in studies of DNA methylation. A major bottleneck is the lack of tools to induce global DNA methylation. Here, we engineered a CRISPR based approach, that we initially designed, to enable site-specific DNA methylation. Using the synergistic activation mediator (SAM) system, we unexpectedly find that regardless of the targeted sequence any sgRNA induces global genome-wide DNA methylation. We term this method SAM-DNMT3A and show that induction of global DNA methylation is a unique vulnerability in ER-positive breast cancer suggesting a therapeutic approach. Our findings highlight the need of caution when using CRISPR based approaches for inducing DNA methylation and demonstrate a method for global induction of DNA methylation.
