5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-Hydroxymethyl-C, Figure 1) is also known as “the sixth base”, given that it has been detected in all animal tissues, with particularly high level in promoter and intragenic regions. 5-hydroxymethylcytosine derives from 5-mC, which plays an important role as an epigenetic marker in gene expression and regulation. However, which role 5-hydroxymethylcytosine plays is still not clear. Incorporation of this base in synthetic oligonucleotides will help researchers elucidating the role of this base.
Figure 1. Structure of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (R = sequence).
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References
- Penn NW., Suwalski R., O'Riley C., Bojanowski K., Yura R. The presence of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in animal deoxyribonucleic acid. Biochem J. 1972 Feb;126(4):781-90.
- Sasaki H., Matsui Y. Epigenetic events in mammalian germ-cell development: reprogramming and beyond. Nat Rev Genet. 2008 Feb;9(2):129-40.
- Tahiliani M., Koh KP., Shen Y., Pastor WA., Bandukwala H., Brudno Y., Agarwal S., Iyer LM., Liu DR., Aravind L., Rao A. Conversion of 5-methylcytosine to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in mammalian DNA by MLL partner TET1. Science. 2009 May 15;324(5929):930-5.