PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Valeriya Gaysinskaya
AU  - Brendan F. Miller
AU  - Godfried W. van der Heijden
AU  - Kasper D. Hansen
AU  - Alex Bortvin
TI  - Transient Reduction of DNA Methylation at the Onset of Meiosis in Male Mice
AID  - 10.1101/177535
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 177535
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/08/17/177535.1.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/08/17/177535.1.full
AB  - The quality of germ cells depends on successful chromatin organization in meiotic prophase I (MPI). To better understand the epigenetic context of MPI we studied the dynamics of DNA methylation in wild-type male mice. We discovered an extended period of genome-wide transient reduction of DNA methylation (TRDM) during early MPI. Our data show that TRDM arises by passive demethylation in the premeiotic S phase highlighting the abundance of hemimethylated DNA in MPI. Importantly, TRDM unmasks a deficit in retrotransposon LINE-1 DNA methylation contributing to its expression in early MPI. We propose that TRDM facilitates meiosis and gamete quality control.