Differences in methylation on the active and inactive human X chromosomes

Methylation of CCGG sites was examined in four regions of the X chromosome with four X-chromosome clones, three obtained by cloning random segments and one encoding a structural gene. In DNA from human peripheral blood cells unmethylated sites correlating with the inactive X chromosome were detected in the vicinity of two of the random clones and also in the vicinity of a cloned sequence of the X-linked phosphoglycerate kinase gene (PGK). The third random clone covered a region whose methylation pattern was unchanged between the active and inactive X chromosomes. Differential methylation at the sites detected appears to have no functional role in the maintenance of the inactive X chromosome since both active and inactive X chromosomes were found to be undermethylated in DNA from human lymphoblastoid cells.