Advances in DNA methylation research have led to the discovery of a variety of cytosine methylation variants derived from the oxidation of 5-methylcytosine (5mC) through the activity of the ten-eleven translocation (TET) family of enzymes. Modifications include 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) and recently identified 5-formylcytosine (5fC) and 5-carboxylcytosine (5caC). DNA methylation is catalyzed by DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs), which methylate unmodified cytosines (C) to generate 5mC. On the other hand, the DNA demethylation is mediated by TET proteins that gradually oxidize 5mC to 5hmC, 5fC, and 5caC. Highly oxidized cytosine bases, 5fC and 5caC, are enzymatically excised by thymine DNA glycosylase (TDG), and resulting abasic sites are repaired by the base-excision repair (BER) pathway to regenerate unmodified C, completing the DNA demethylation process (5mC to C).

In addition, 5fC and 5caC could act as epigenetic markers because of the presence of a high number of nuclear proteins that are able to recognize and specifically bind these modified sites.

Figure 1. Schematic Diagram of DNA Nucleotide Variants. (Song C X.; et al. 2012).

If your research direction is to explore the kinetics of active DNA demethylation in normal or pathological biological processes or to discover the importance of 5fC/5caC in cell biology, Creative BioMart will provide you with genome-wide profiling of 5fC/5caC and global DNA 5fC/5caC quantification services with high-quality data and fast turnaround time. Creative BioMart offers a series of services which can provide information on DNA 5fC/5caC at different levels.

Other DNA Methylation Variants Analysis Services at Creative BioMart

Genome-wide Profiling of 5fC and 5caC
Methylation-assisted bisulfite sequencing (MAB-Seq) technology allows base-resolution mapping of 5fC and 5caC, two oxidized 5mC bases indicative of active, and measurement of their relative abundance.

Global DNA 5fC/5caC Quantification by LC-MS/MS
Liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) provides quantification of 5fC/5caC content in genomic DNA. It’s highly accurate and sensitive.

Creative BioMart hopes to accelerate your scientific research associated with epigenetics through our extensive and state-of-the-art technology platforms. If you are interested in the analysis of novel DNA nucleotide variants, such as 5fC and 5caC, please feel free to contact us, Creative BioMart is looking forward to working together with your attractive projects.

Reference
1. Song C X.; et al. Mapping recently identified nucleotide variants in the genome and transcriptome. Nature Biotechnology. 2012, 30(11): 1107-1116.