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A twist in zygotic reprogramming

The first hours of mammalian embryogenesis are devoted to extensive epigenetic reprogramming. One hallmark is active demethylation of the paternal genome by Tet (ten-eleven translocation) enzymes. However, the process is now shown to be Tet-independent at first, with Tet enzymes only counteracting hitherto underappreciated de novo DNA methylation activity in later zygotic stages.

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Figure 1: Schematic representation of DNA methylation changes of the paternal genome in the mammalian zygote, according to Amouroux et al.2.

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Acknowledgements

I thank Heike Wollmann for critical discussion and input. The D.M.M. laboratory is funded by the Biomedical research council of the Agency for Science Technology & Research and the National Research Foundation, Singapore.

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Correspondence to Daniel M. Messerschmidt.

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Messerschmidt, D. A twist in zygotic reprogramming. Nat Cell Biol 18, 139–140 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb3304

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