A process that chemically modifies 5-methylcytosine (5meC) to make it a substrate for the base excision repair pathway, which then restores the unmodified cytosine.
Comment:
Note that this term describes the biochemical pathways of chromosomal cytosine demethylation but is agnostic to the effect on gene expression. If the data supports it, consider co-annotating to 'positive regulation of gene expression, epigenetic ; GO:0044029' or a child.
Synonyms:
related_synonym:
epigenetic 5-methylcytosine DNA demethylation; epigenetic 5-methylcytosine DNA demethylation pathway; epigenetic DNA demethylation