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Science 20 April 2007:
Vol. 316. no. 5823, pp. 398 - 399
DOI: 10.1126/science.1137544
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Review

Epigenetic Decisions in Mammalian Germ Cells

Christopher B. Schaefer,1 Steen K. T. Ooi,1 Timothy H. Bestor,1 Déborah Bourc'his2*

Specific sequences are designated for de novo DNA methylation at CpG dinucleotides in mammalian germ cells. The result is the long-term transcriptional silencing of the methylated sequences, most of which are retrotransposons and CpG-rich sequences associated with imprinted genes. There is profound sexual dimorphism in both the nature of the sequences that undergo de novo methylation in germ cells and in the mechanism by which de novo methylation is regulated. The restriction of future gene expression by the imposition of heritable methylation patterns in germ cell genomes is characteristic of mammals but is rare in other taxa.

1 Department of Genetics and Development, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA.
2 INSERM U741 University Paris 7, 75251 Paris, Cedex 05, France.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tour 43/44, 2ème étage 2 Place Jussieu, 75251 Paris, Cedex 05, France. E-mail: bourchis{at}ijm.jussieu.fr

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