Detection of heavy methylation in human repetitive DNA subsets by a monoclonal antibody against 5-methylcytosine

Abstract

A monoclonal antibody (IgM) against 5-methylcytosine (mC) was isolated and characterized. It showed a high specificity for mC with a cross-reactivity of less than 1% with cytosine and 0.1% with thymidine. An improved immunohybridization method, originally developed with polyclonal antibodies (Sano et al. (1980) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 77, 3581), was applied to detect mC in immobilized DNA using the new monoclonal preparation. Human genomic DNA was cleaved with the restriction enzyme EcoRI and successively fractionated by malachite-green affinity chromatography and agarose gel electrophoresis. The fractionated DNA was transferred to nitrocellulose paper and treated with the anti-mC monoclonal antibody. Heavy methylation was observed in EcoRI-ladders of repetitive sequences of 1360, 1750, 2200 and 3400 bp, while 340, 660 and 2700 bp fragments were less methylated. The results show that methylation occurs in limited subsets of satellite II and III repetitive DNAs that contain high amounts of methylatable CpG dinucleotides, or CpG clusters.