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Recognition of the methylated regions of the DNA plays an important role in the epigenetic processes. We analyze the interactions between the methylated DNA and the methyl-CpG-binding proteins using two models. The first model was built from a methylated or non-methylated cytosine, a guanine and an arginine residue in the experimental arrangement. We applied the M06L density functional method with a small, polarized double-ζ basis set for the geometry optimizations, and the MP2 method with polarized triple-ζ basis set for the energy calculations. The second model was built from two methylcytosines, guanines, guanidinium groups plus an additional carboxyl group in the experimental arrangement. We applied the B3LYP method with a small, polarized double-ζ basis set for the geometry optimizations and thermal corrections. The single-point energies were obtained from dual-hybrid dRPA75 and dRPA@PBE0 calculations supplemented by a moderately large polarized triple-ζ basis set. The hydration effects were modeled by adding explicit water molecules. These calculations revealed that the hydrophobic interaction has the largest contribution to the Gibbs interaction energy and turns the arginine side chains into hydrogen bonding position. Our results show that the translation of the protein along the DNA double helix is sterically hindered by the contact of its arginine side chains with the methyl groups of the methyl cytosines. This supports a hopping mechanism for the searching movement of the protein along the DNA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: DNA methylation is an important epigenetic modification of genomes and is associated with various human diseases. Here, we develop a sensitive approach for DNA methylation assay using the short linear quencher–fluorophore DNA probe (QF probe) and two-stage isothermal amplification. With bisulfite treatment, the methylated DNA target is able to hybridize with the template to initiate the strand displacement amplification (SDA), generating abundant triggers which can further hybridize with the QF probes to form the DNA duplexes. The subsequent recognition of DNA duplexes and the cleavage of QF probes by the nicking enzyme can initiate the nicking enzyme signal amplification (NESA), inducing a significant fluorescence enhancement. While in the absence of methylated DNA, neither SDA nor NESA reaction can be initiated and no fluorescence enhancement is observed. This method exhibits high sensitivity with a detection limit of 0.78pM, and can distinguish as low as 0.1% methylation level from the mixture of methylated and unmethylated DNA. Notably, the introduction of SDA into NESA can improve the detection sensitivity by up to 2 orders of magnitude as compared with the NESA assay, and it can even discriminate single-base mismatched methylated DNA. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Methyl-directed site-specific DNA endonucleases (MD endonucleases) are a small group of enzymes that specifically cleave only methylated DNA. The group includes N6-methyladenine- and 5-methylcytosine-directed enzymes. Although poorly understood, MD endonucleases are of interest for both basic research and application in biotechnology and epigenomics. The review for the first time summarizes the properties of MD endonucleases and considers their role in the bacterial cell and their possible uses in biotechnology and epigenomics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]