In vivo stabilization of the Dnmt1 (cytosine-5)-methyltransferase protein

The Dnmt1o form of the Dnmt1 (cytosine-5)-methyltransferase enzyme is synthesized and stored in the cytoplasm of the oocyte and is used after fertilization to maintain methylation patterns on imprinted genes. After implantation of the blastocyst, Dnmt1o is replaced by the Dnmt1 form, which has an additional 118 aa at its amino terminus. To investigate functional differences between Dnmt1o and Dnmt1, mice were generated with a mutant allele, Dnmt1(v) which synthesized Dnmt1o instead of Dnmt1 in all somatic cells. Homozygous Dnmt1(v) mice were phenotypically normal, and had normal levels of genomic methylation, indicating that Dnmt1o adopts the maintenance methyltransferase function of Dnmt1. Despite the apparent equivalence of Dnmt1o and Dnmt1 maintenance methyltransferase function in somatic cells, the Dnmt1o protein was found at high levels (with a corresponding high enzymatic activity) in Dnmt1(v) mice. In heterozygous Dnmt1(v)/+ embryonic stem cells and early embryos, equal steady-state levels of Dnmt1o and Dnmt1 proteins were produced from the Dnmt1(v) and the WT Dnmt1 alleles, respectively. However, in older embryos and adults, the Dnmt1(v) allele produced five times the steady-state level of protein of the WT Dnmt1 allele. The difference in Dnmt1o and Dnmt1 levels is due to a developmentally regulated mechanism that degrades the Dnmt1 protein. The intrinsic stability of the Dnmt1o protein is the most likely reason for its use as a maternal-effect protein; stable ooplasmic stores of Dnmt1o would be available to traffick into the nuclei of the eight-cell stage embryo and maintain methylation patterns on alleles of imprinted genes during the fourth embryonic S phase.