Evidence for methylation of inactive human rRNA genes in amplified regions.

In two unrelated families, the short arm of a 14p+ marker chromosome contains an increased number of copies of the 18S + 28S rRNA genes without a comparable increase in the transcriptional activity, as shown by silver staining. The DNA in this region is highly enriched in 5-methylcytosine, as shown by specific antibody binding. In contrast, the owl monkey and cat have a single major nucleolus organizer region (NOR) per haploid genome; these NORs contain about the same number of rRNA genes as the 14p+ chromosome but are not methylated. These findings suggest that most of the amplified human rRNA genes on the 14p+ chromosomes have been inactivated by a process involving DNA methylation.