Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33750431›Full record

ArticleEpigenetics & chromatin2021

Stable DNMT3L overexpression in SH-SY5Y neurons recreates a facet of the genome-wide Down syndrome DNA methylation signature.

Benjamin I Laufer, J Antonio Gomez, Julia M Jianu, Janine M LaSalle

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Epigenetics & chromatin, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
11citing papers in PubMed
1.0field-weighted citation impact, top 26% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

11 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Risk of Alzheimer's disease in Down syndrome: Insights gained by multi-omics.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025
    Review
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  3. Article
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  8. X Chromosome Inactivation Timing is Not eFrontiers in genetics · 2022
    Article
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  10. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Benjamin I Laufer *Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.
J Antonio Gomez *Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.
Julia M JianuDepartment of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.
Janine M LaSalleDepartment of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA, 95616, USA. jmlasalle@ucdavis.edu.ORCID 0000-0002-3480-2031
University of California, Davis · USUniversity of California System · US

Funding

Staff InvestigatorsP30CA093373 · NCI · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS · PI Gina M Dayton · 2002 to 2026
$84.9M
THE CHARGE STUDY: CHILDHOOD AUTISM RISKS FROM GENETICS AND THE ENVIRONMENT - ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPLEMENTR01ES015359 · NIEHS · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS · PI HERTZ-PICCIOTTO, IRVA · 2007 to 2019
$13.8M
Research Project: Pathologic Significance of Maternal AutoantibodiesP50HD103526 · NICHD · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS · PI LEONARD J. ABBEDUTO, Melissa Dawn Bauman · 2020 to 2026
$9.7M
Training Program in Oncogenic Signals and Chromosome BiologyT32CA108459 · NCI · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS · PI HEYER, WOLF-DIETRICH · 2006 to 2020
$3.6M
Acquisition of Covaris E220 and Sciclone G3 systems for high throughput sequencinS10OD010786 · OD · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS · PI COMAI, LUCA · 2012 to 2012
$311k
CIHR BPF-162684CIHR MFE-146824NCI NIH HHS P30 CA093373NCI NIH HHS T32 CA108459NICHD NIH HHS P50 HD103526NIEHS NIH HHS R01 ES015359NIH HHS S10 OD010786
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundDown syndrome (DS) is characterized by a genome-wide profile of differential DNA methylation that is skewed towards hypermethylation in most tissues, including brain, and includes pan-tissue differential methylation. The molecular mechanisms involve the overexpression of genes related to DNA methylation on chromosome 21. Here, we stably overexpressed the chromosome 21 gene DNA methyltransferase 3L (DNMT3L) in the human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cell line and assayed DNA methylation at over 26 million CpGs by whole genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) at three different developmental phases (undifferentiated, differentiating, and differentiated).

resultsDNMT3L overexpression resulted in global CpG and CpG island hypermethylation as well as thousands of differentially methylated regions (DMRs). The DNMT3L DMRs were skewed towards hypermethylation and mapped to genes involved in neurodevelopment, cellular signaling, and gene regulation. Consensus DNMT3L DMRs showed that cell lines clustered by genotype and then differentiation phase, demonstrating sets of common genes affected across neuronal differentiation. The hypermethylated DNMT3L DMRs from all pairwise comparisons were enriched for regions of bivalent chromatin marked by H3K4me3 as well as differentially methylated sites from previous DS studies of diverse tissues. In contrast, the hypomethylated DNMT3L DMRs from all pairwise comparisons displayed a tissue-specific profile enriched for regions of heterochromatin marked by H3K9me3 during embryonic development.

conclusionsTaken together, these results support a mechanism whereby regions of bivalent chromatin that lose H3K4me3 during neuronal differentiation are targeted by excess DNMT3L and become hypermethylated. Overall, these findings demonstrate that DNMT3L overexpression during neurodevelopment recreates a facet of the genome-wide DS DNA methylation signature by targeting known genes and gene clusters that display pan-tissue differential methylation in DS.

Indexed as

DNA MethylationDown SyndromeCell Line, TumorCpG IslandsDNADNA (Cytosine-5-)-MethyltransferasesEpigenesis, GeneticFemaleHumansNeuronsPregnancyDNADNA (Cytosine-5-)-MethyltransferasesDNMT3L protein, humanBivalent chromatinDNMT3LDown syndromeEpigenomicsPiggyBac transgenesisWhole genome bisulfite sequencing

Identifiers

PMID33750431
PMCPMC7942011
OpenAlexW3136687548

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.