DNA methylation is generally known to inactivate gene expression. The DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs), DNMT3A and DNMT3B, catalyze somatic cell lineage‐specific DNA methylation, while DNMT3A and DNMT3L catalyze germ cell lineage‐specific DNA methylation. How such lineage‐ and gene‐specific DNA methylation patterns are created remains to be elucidated. To better understand the regulatory mechanisms underlying DNA methylation, we generated transgenic mice that constitutively expressed DNMT3A and DNMT3L, and analyzed DNA methylation, gene expression, and their subsequent impact on ontogeny. All transgenic mice were born normally but died within 20 weeks accompanied with cardiac hypertrophy. Several genes were repressed in the hearts of transgenic mice compared with those in wild‐type mice. CpG islands of these downregulated genes were highly methylated in the transgenic mice. This abnormal methylation occurred in the perinatal stage. Conversely, monoallelic DNA methylation at imprinted loci was faithfully maintained in all transgenic mice, except
H19
. Thus, the loci preferred by DNMT3A and DNMT3L differ between somatic and germ cell lineages.
Transgenic mice are essential research tools in developmental biology studies. The 2A peptide allows multiple genes to be
expressed simultaneously at comparable levels in somatic cells, but there are no reports of it being used successfully in
germ cells. We constructed a Cre/loxP-based conditional vector containing the 2A peptide to significantly enhance the
expression of a reporter and target gene from a constitutive promoter in oocytes. Mice with a transgene insertion containing
the chicken β-actin promoter, floxed EGFP-polyA cassette, mCherry reporter, 2A peptide and target gene DNA methyltransferase
3A2 (Dnmt3a2) were crossed with TNAP- or Vasa-Cre mice to produce offspring, in which mCherry and DNMT3A2
proteins were highly expressed in oocytes upon Cre-mediated removal of EGFP-polyA. This novel transgenic mouse line based on
the 2A expression system can serve as a useful tool for examining gene function during oogenesis.
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