Natural, modified DNA bases.

The four canonical bases that make up genomic DNA are subject to a variety of chemical modifications in living systems. Recent years have witnessed the discovery of various new modified bases and of the enzymes responsible for their processing. Here, we review the range of DNA base modifications currently known and recent advances in chemical methodology that have driven progress in this field, in particular regarding their detection and sequencing. Elucidating the cellular functions of modifications remains an ongoing challenge; we discuss recent contributions to this area before exploring their relevance in medicine.

Keywords

Detection, Epigenetic engineering, Functions of DNA modifications, Modified DNA bases, Modified base, Modified bases and disease, Sequencing, Animals, Base Pairing, Chromatography, Liquid, DNA, Epigenesis, Genetic, Humans, Mass Spectrometry, Sequence Analysis, DNA

Journal Title

Curr Opin Chem Biol

Journal ISSN

1367-5931
1879-0402

Volume Title

57

Publisher

Elsevier

Publisher DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpa.2020.01.014

Rights and licensing

Except where otherwised noted, this item's license is described as Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Sponsorship

Wellcome Trust (209441/Z/17/Z)
Wellcome Trust (099232/Z/12/Z)
Cancer Research UK (18618)

Collections

University of Cambridge Research Outputs (Articles and Conferences)