High impact information on Ssm1

• Mapping experiments using BXD recombinant inbred mice as well as other inbred strains indicate that a single strain-specific modifier (Ssm-1) linked to, but distinct from, Fv-1 is responsible for the strain effect [1].
• Changes in methylation patterns in preimplantation embryos are therefore proposed to be under the control of unidentified regulatory factors rather than DNA MTase itself; these regulatory factors could be members of the group that contains the products of the Ssm-1 and Imp-1 genes, which are involved in the regulation of genomic imprinting [2].
• A cis-acting element that directs the activity of the murine methylation modifier locus Ssm1 [3].
• We previously described a strain-specific modifier locus, Ssm1, that controls the methylation of a complex transgene [3].
• Ssm1 is responsible for the mouse strain-specific DNA methylation of the transgene HRD [4].

Biological context of Ssm1

• DNA methylation precedes chromatin modifications under the influence of the strain-specific modifier Ssm1 [4].
• A locus on distal chromosome 4, Ssm1 (strain-specific modifier), controls this phenomenon [5].

References