Deciphering the cellular reading system of DNA methylation

Scientists from the FMI identify how a family of proteins reads the methylation marks on the DNA so critical for cell development. These MBD proteins bind directly to methylation marks and inactivate the respective stretches of DNA. The findings are important because they provide the means to better understand how this epigenetic mark influences cell fates. Dirk Schübeler and his team at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research have now been able to show how proteins that bind methylated DNA recognize and interpret this well-known epigenetic modification in our genome. These Using a novel approach, they could show how a specialized group of proteins called MBD proteins directly binds to methylation marks on the DNA through their methyl-CpG-binding domain. More methyl knobs on the DNA lead to more MBD protein binding, but reduced activity of genes. MBD proteins continuously read the marks on the DNA and follow them as they change, for example, when a stem cell becomes a neuron.