Proteomic analysis of a novel protein complex KIAA1310 and studying the roles of DNA hydroxymethylation in diabetic patients

Abstract

Epigenetic modifications affect the genome without directly affecting the genetic code within the DNA. There are many different types of these modifications and they can last for just a few cell replications or for many generations of cells. Many of them involve covalent modifications of histone proteins, affecting the packing of the chromatin and therefore regulating the transcription and expression of different genes. One epigenetic modification that has been considered more permanent is the methylation of the 5' carbon on cytosine. DNA methylation is performed and maintained by different DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) enzymes. Recently, it has been discovered that this methylation is not permanent, as once thought, but rather it is reversible. 5mC can be hydroxymethylated by the ten-eleven translocase (TET) family of enzymes. They convert 5mC into 5-hydroxymethylcytsoine (5hmC), 5-carboxylcytosine (5caC), 5-formylcytosine (5fC). These changes to the epigenome remove the effects of 5mC, changing gene transcription and expression levels. It is yet to be determined how these modified cytosines are recycled into an unmodified cytosine within the DNA. There are many proposed mechanisms, and they all seem to involve the TET family proteins and their product, 5hmC. [TRUNCATED]