DNA甲基化在哺乳动物卵母细胞和早期胚胎发育中的研究进展

Research Progress of the DNA Methylation in Mammalian Oocyte and Early Embryo Development

DNA甲基化(DNA methylation)是一种动态、可逆并可以遗传的表观遗传修饰模式,主要发生在哺乳动物原始生殖细胞和早期胚胎发育过程中,能够通过高动态和协同的核酶网络附着在DNA的CpG区域,同时还通过改变调控区域的功能状态进而调控基因表达且不影响DNA序列所携带的遗传信息。DNA甲基化主要涉及基因组印迹、转座元件沉默、X染色体失活和衰老等多种关键生理过程,在哺乳动物卵母细胞和胚胎发育中发挥着重要作用。本文介绍了DNA甲基化的建立与去除机制及其生物学功能,重点阐述了DNA甲基化在哺乳动物卵母细胞和胚胎发育过程中精准生成、维持、读取和删除等动态变化过程,为进一步研究哺乳动物表观遗传调控提供参考依据。

DNA methylation is a dynamic, reversible and heritable epigenetic modification pattern that mainly occurs in mammalian primordial germ cells and early embryonic development. DNA methylation can attach to the CpG region of DNA through highly dynamic and cooperative ribozyme networks, and it can also regulate gene expression by altering functional state of the regulatory regions without affecting genetic information carried by the DNA sequence. DNA methylation is mainly involved in a variety of key physiological processes such as genomic imprinting, transposable element silencing, X-chromosome inactivation and senescence, and plays an important role in mammalian oocyte and embryo development. This review introduces the establishment and removal mechanism of DNA methylation and the biological functions, with emphasis on the dynamic processes of precise generation, maintenance, reading and deletion of DNA methylation during mammalian oocyte and embryo development, providing basis for further studies on mammalian epigenetic regulation.