TY - JOUR AU - Pattyn, Filip AU - Hoebeeck, Jasmien AU - Robbrecht, Piet AU - Michels, Evi AU - De Paepe, Anne AU - Bottu, Guy AU - Coornaert, David AU - Herzog, Robert AU - Speleman, Frank AU - Vandesompele, Jo PY - 2006 DA - 2006/11/09 TI - methBLAST and methPrimerDB: web-tools for PCR based methylation analysis JO - BMC Bioinformatics SP - 496 VL - 7 IS - 1 AB - DNA methylation plays an important role in development and tumorigenesis by epigenetic modification and silencing of critical genes. The development of PCR-based methylation assays on bisulphite modified DNA heralded a breakthrough in speed and sensitivity for gene methylation analysis. Despite this technological advancement, these approaches require a cumbersome gene by gene primer design and experimental validation. Bisulphite DNA modification results in sequence alterations (all unmethylated cytosines are converted into uracils) and a general sequence complexity reduction as cytosines become underrepresented. Consequently, standard BLAST sequence homology searches cannot be applied to search for specific methylation primers. SN - 1471-2105 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2105-7-496 DO - 10.1186/1471-2105-7-496 ID - Pattyn2006 ER -