Investigation of structural properties of methylated human promoter regions in terms of DNA helical rise

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Thesis Type: Postgraduate

Institution Of The Thesis: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Graduate School of Informatics, Medical Informatics, Turkey

Approval Date: 2014

Student: BURCU YALDIZ

Supervisor: YEŞİM AYDIN SON

Abstract:

The infamous double helix structure of DNA was assumed to be a rigid, uniformly observed structure throughout the genomic DNA. However, the differences in physical structure of DNA in terms of local helical parameters such as twist, tilt, roll, rise and angles between adjacent base pairs in B-DNA molecule have been shown in many studies. This observed flexibility satisfies the known physical and chemical properties of DNA while providing a better model to explain how DNA fulfills its biological functions. While the relation between human promoters’ methylation status and gene expression profiles in certain cancer types has been established in various studies, the structural properties of methylated promoters were rarely investigated. In this study our goal is to investigate the structural differences between human promoters due to methylation status and gene expression profiles in terms of sequence dependent DNA helical rise. The resulting structural differences have the potential to facilitate further studies to predict the methylation status of human promoters across the whole genome for the investigation of clinically relevant biomarkers in cancer.