Patent ID: 8067163

Claim:
A method to determine which biological function a target gene in a cell is associated with, the target gene having a nucleotide sequence including a promoter and a first exon region, the method comprising: separately culturing a first population and a second population of the cell under same culturing conditions, the first population of the cell differing from the second population of the cell in that the first population of the cell has accepted the introduction of a methylated polynucleotide selected from the group consisting of: (i) a single-stranded molecule, which has a nucleotide sequence identical to or fully complementary to that of a portion of the target gene's nucleotide sequence at the promoter and/or the first exon region thereof; (ii) a double-stranded molecule, one strand of which has a nucleotide sequence identical to or fully complementary to that of a portion of the target gene's nucleotide sequence at the promoter and/or the first exon region thereof; and (iii) a combination of (i) and (ii); comparing the first population and the second population of the cell to determine which biological difference is present there between; and determining which biological function the target gene is associated with based on the biological difference present between the first population and the second population of the cell wherein the cell is a mesenchymal stem cell; and wherein introduction of the methylated polynucleotide into the first population of the cell does not cause death of the first population of the cell in the culturing step, wherein the target gene is a TRIP10 gene.