Disruption of the MECP2 gene leads to Rett syndrome (RTT), a severe neurological disorder with features of autism1. MECP2 encodes a methyl-DNA-binding protein2 that has been proposed to function as a transcriptional repressor, but despite numerous studies examining neuronal gene expression in Mecp2 mutants, no clear model has emerged for how MeCP2 regulates transcription3–9. Here we identify a genome-wide length-dependent increase in gene expression in MeCP2 mutant mouse models and human RTT brains. We present evidence that MeCP2 represses gene expression by binding to methylated CA sites within long genes, and that in neurons lacking MeCP2, decreasing the expression of long genes attenuates RTT-associated cellular deficits. In addition, we find that long genes as a population are enriched for neuronal functions and selectively expressed in the brain. These findings suggest that mutations in MeCP2 may cause neurological dysfunction by specifically disrupting long gene expression in the brain.

SUMMARY In mammals during the early postnatal period the environment plays a critical role in promoting the final steps in the neuronal development. While epigenetic factors are thought to contribute to this process, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here we show that in the brain during early life the DNA methyltransferase DNMT3A transiently binds across transcribed regions of lowly expressed genes, and its binding specifies the pattern of DNA methylation at CA sequences (mCA) within these genes. We find that DNMT3A occupancy and mCA deposition within the transcribed regions of genes is negatively regulated by gene transcription and may be modified by early-life experience. Once deposited, mCA is bound by the methyl-DNA-binding protein MECP2 and functions in a rheostat-like manner to fine-tune the cell type-specific transcription of genes that are critical for brain function.

DNA methylation at CpG dinucleotides is an important epigenetic regulator common to virtually all mammalian cell types, but recent evidence indicates that during early postnatal development neuronal genomes also accumulate uniquely high levels of two alternative forms of methylation, non-CpG methylation and hydroxymethylation. Here we discuss the distinct landscape of DNA methylation in neurons, how it is established, and how it might affect the binding and function of protein readers of DNA methylation. We review studies of one critical reader of DNA methylation in the brain, the Rett syndrome protein methyl CpG-binding protein 2 (MeCP2), and discuss how differential binding affinity of MeCP2 for non-CpG and hydroxymethylation may affect the function of this methyl-binding protein in the nervous system.M ethylation of cytosines at the carbon 5 position (5-methylcytosine, mC) constitutes the most common covalent modification of vertebrate genomic DNA. Traditionally, cytosine methylation in vertebrate genomes has been viewed as largely restricted to CpG dinucleotide (CG) sequences, providing a stable epigenetic mark that mediates long-term transcriptional silencing. Indeed, 60-90% of all CGs are methylated in mammalian genomes, and CG methylation (mCG) has been shown to play critical roles in genomic imprinting, X-chromosome inactivation, cellular differentiation, and development (1). In addition, the disruption of cellular DNA methylation patterns has been linked to human disease, including multiple cancers (2, 3).Evidence that DNA methylation has a uniquely important role in the brain emerged almost two decades ago with the discovery of the prominent methyl-DNA-binding protein, methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (MeCP2), and the later identification that mutations in MeCP2 give rise to the X-linked neurological disorder Rett syndrome (RTT) (4-6). Subsequent studies also have identified neurodevelopmental disorders associated with mutations in DNA methyltransferases (7), suggesting that both the enzymatic "writers" of DNA methylation patterns and the "readers" of these marks have important roles in the brain. In this context, new studies from several laboratories have uncovered extensive cytosine modification in the brain beyond mCG. Non-CG methylation (CH methylation or mCH, in which H = A, C, or T) is now appreciated to accumulate in the human and mouse brain postnatally, reaching levels similar to that of mCG in the neuronal genome (8, 9). Moreover, oxidation of mC by the ten-eleven translocation (Tet) family of dioxygenases leads to the selective accumulation of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (hmC) in the adult brain, together with its more highly oxidized derivatives 5-formylcytosine and 5-carboxylcytosine (10, 11). This finding suggests that hmC may act as an intermediate in an active DNA demethylation pathway, though growing evidence also suggests that hmC may serve as a stable neuronal epigenetic mark in its own right (12).The discovery of these previously unidentified brain-enriched forms of DNA methylation provides...

Highlights d MeCP2 represses transcription of highly methylated long genes through NCoR d Direct measurements of transcriptional initiation and elongation rates in the mouse brain d MeCP2 reduces transcriptional initiation, not elongation, of highly methylated long genes d Gene body-TSS contacts position distal MeCP2 molecules at the TSS

Rett syndrome is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder caused by mutations in the methyl-CpG binding protein gene (MECP2). MeCP2 is a methyl-cytosine binding protein that is proposed to function as a transcriptional repressor. However, multiple gene expression studies comparing wild-type and MeCP2-deficient neurons have failed to identify gene expression changes consistent with loss of a classical transcriptional repressor. Recent work suggests that one function of MeCP2 in neurons is to temper the expression of the longest genes in the genome by binding to methylated CA dinucleotides (mCA) within transcribed regions of these genes. Here we explore the mechanism of mCA and MeCP2 in fine tuning the expression of long genes. We find that mCA is not only highly enriched within the body of genes normally repressed by MeCP2, but also enriched within extended megabase-scale regions surrounding MeCP2-repressed genes. Whereas enrichment of mCA exists in a broad region around these genes, mCA together with mCG within gene bodies appears to be the primary driver of gene repression by MeCP2. Disruption of methylation at CA sites within the brain results in depletion of MeCP2 across genes that normally contain a high density of gene-body mCA. We further find that the degree of gene repression by MeCP2 is proportional to the total number of methylated cytosine MeCP2 binding sites across the body of a gene. These findings suggest a model in which MeCP2 tunes gene expression in neurons by binding within the transcribed regions of genes to impede the elongation of RNA polymerase.