In mammalian genomes a sixth base, 5-hydroxymethylcytosine ((hm)C), is generated by enzymatic oxidation of 5-methylcytosine ((m)C). This discovery has raised fundamental questions about the functional relevance of (hm)C in mammalian genomes. Due to their very similar chemical structure, discrimination of the rare (hm)C against the far more abundant (m)C is technically challenging and to date no...

An artificial phosphopeptide recognized the difference between methylated and hydroxymethylated cytosines in DNA. The Sp1 zinc finger peptide substituted by phosphotyrosine effectively discriminated between 5-methylcytosine, 5-hydroxymethylcytosine ((hm)C) and unmethylated cytosine. The DNA recognition properties of the peptide differ from those of other chemicals that detect (hm)C.

Adenosine Analogs, Conformation, NMR The solution conformation of adenosine(/Oribosides modified at the 2', 3' or 5' position is derived from the analysis o f the HRNM R spectra of the ribose protons. The conformational equilibria of the furanoside rings are described by the two state N <-+ S model introduced by Altona and Sundaralingam. The new compounds studied are: 2'-thiobenzoyl-2'-deoxyade...

DNA methylation plays an important role in the epigenetic regulation of mammalian gene expression. TET (ten-eleven translocation) proteins, newly discovered demethylases, have sparked great interest since their discovery. TET proteins catalyze 5-methylcytosine to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine, 5-formylcytosine and 5-carboxylcytosine in 3 consecutive Fe(II)- and 2-oxoglutarate (2-OG)-dependent oxidati...