Research advances in TET enzyme and its intermediate product 5hmC / 中南大学学报(医学版)

DNA methylation is a significant epigenetic modification mode, which plays an important role in embryo reprogramming, stem cell differentiation and tumor occurrence. The ten-eleven translocation (TET) enzyme is a crucial demethylation enzyme, which can catalyze 5-methylcytosine(5mC) to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine(5hmC), 5-formylcytosine (5fC), and 5-carboxylcytosine(5caC). These bases represent the epigenetic modifications of DNA and regulate the process of DNA methylation. Understanding the role of TET enzyme in regulating the DNA methylation modification and gene expression can help us to gain the knowledge for the normal growth development and epigenetic regulation in human diseases.