Genome mapping of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine using human postmortem brains

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24591676
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Psychiatric science
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: BUNDO Miki 東京大学, 医学部附属病院, 特任助教 (00597221)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): IWAMOTO Kazuya 東京大学, 大学院医学系研究科, 特任准教授 (40342753)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: ハイドロキシメチルシトシン / DNAメチル化 / ヒト死後脳

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Despite a huge number of studies, the etiology of psychiatric disorders has not been clarified. Recently, 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmc) was identified as a novel form of modified cytosine, and it is considered as an intermediate form in demethylation step of 5-methylcytosine (5-mc). As the content of 5-hmc in the brain tissues is higher than in any other tissues, it is expected to have the novel roles in the brains.
We have reported that the copy number of Long Interspersed Elements-1 (LINE-1), which has autonomous retrotransposition activity in human genome, increases genomic DNA derived from postmortem brains of patients with major mental disorders, but its mechanism remains unknown. In this study, we have studied the 5-hmc and 5-mc status at LINE-1 regions of genomic DNA from neurons and non-neuronal cells in a healthy human postmortem brain. We found that the content of 5-hmc is especially concentrated at evolutionarily young (active) LINE-1 region in neuronal cells.

Free Research Field

精神疾患