Gr. Xu et al., PURIFICATION AND STABILIZATION OF MOUSE DNA METHYLTRANSFERASE, Biochemical and biophysical research communications, 207(2), 1995, pp. 544-551
Cytosine methylation within DNA has been implicated in genetic imprint
ing, X-chromosome inactivation, regulation of tissue-specific gene exp
ression, aging, and cancer. Unfortunately, DNA (cytosine-5)-methyltran
sfersases (EC 2.1.1.37) from various mammalian sources have been diffi
cult to isolate and stabilize, precluding investigations of these crit
ical enzymes. We describe a novel FPLC purification of the 190,000 Mr
DNA methyltransferase from mouse Friend erythroleukemia cells. The hom
ogeneous 190 kD Mr form of the enzyme is the only polypeptide detected
at various stages of cell growth and has not undergone detectable N-t
erminal proteolysis. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.