Global and gene specific DNA methylation changes during zebrafish development
- Authors
- Fang, X., Corrales, J., Thornton, C., Scheffler, B.E., and Willett, K.L.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-130806-2
- Date
- 2013
- Source
- Comparative biochemistry and physiology. Part B, Biochemistry & molecular biology 166(1): 99-108 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Keywords
- DNA methylation, zebrafish, development, vasa, rassf1
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Cytosine/metabolism
- DNA Methylation/genetics*
- DNA Modification Methylases/biosynthesis*
- Embryonic Development/genetics*
- Gene Expression Profiling
- Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
- Larva/genetics
- Larva/metabolism
- Liver/metabolism
- Promoter Regions, Genetic
- RNA, Messenger/biosynthesis
- Zebrafish/genetics*
- Zebrafish/growth & development
- PubMed
- 23876386 Full text @ Comp. Biochem. Physiol. B Biochem. Mol. Biol.
DNA methylation is dynamic through the life of an organism. Previous studies have primarily focused on DNA methylation changes during very early embryogenesis. In this study, global and gene specific DNA methylation in zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos, larvae and adult liver were compared. The percent methylation of cytosines was low in 2 to 4.3 h post fertilization (hpf) zebrafish embryos and was consistently higher in zebrafish older than 6 hpf. Furthermore, quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) results showed relatively high DNA methyltransferase 1 (dnmt1) and low glycine N-methyltransferase (gnmt) mRNA expression in early embryogenesis. By studying methylation patterns and gene expression of five developmentally important genes, namely vasa, Ras-association domain family member 1 (rassf1), telomerase reverse transcriptase (tert), c-jun and c-myca, we found that the timing of changes in DNA methylation patterns was gene specific, and changes in gene expression were not necessarily correlated with the DNA methylation patterns.