Proximity ligation <it>in situ </it>assay for monitoring the global DNA methylation in cells

Abstract

Abstract Background DNA methylation has a central role in the epigenetic control of mammalian gene expression, and is required for X inactivation, genomics imprinting and silencing of retrotransposons and repetitive sequences. Thus, several technologies have been developed to measure the degree of DNA methylation. Results We here present the development of the detection of protein-protein interactions via the adaptation of the proximity ligation in situ technology to evaluate the DNA methylation status in cells since the quantification of Dnmt1/PCNA interaction in cells reflects the degree of DNA methylation. Conclusion This method being directly realizable on cells, it appears that it could suggest a wide range of applications in basic research and drug development. More particularly, this method is specially adapted for the investigations realized from a weak quantity of biologic materiel such as stem cells or primary cultured tumor cells for examples.

Keywords

• Global DNA methylation
• method
• Dnmt1/PCNA
• proximity ligation <it>in situ </it>technology