Trans-histone regulatory pathway in chromatin (original) (raw)

Gene silencing

Nature volume 418, page 498 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

The fundamental unit of eukaryotic chromatin, the nucleosome, consists of genomic DNA wrapped around the conserved histone proteins H3, H2B, H2A and H4, all of which are variously modified at their amino- and carboxy-terminal tails to influence the dynamics of chromatin structure and function1,2 — for example, conjugation of histone H2B with ubiquitin controls the outcome of methylation at a specific lysine residue (Lys 4) on histone H3, which regulates gene silencing in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae3. Here we show that ubiquitination of H2B is also necessary for the methylation of Lys 79 in H3, the only modification known to occur away from the histone tails, but that not all methylated lysines in H3 are regulated by this '_trans_-histone' pathway because the methylation of Lys 36 in H3 is unaffected. Given that gene silencing is regulated by the methylation of Lys 4 and Lys 79 in histone H3, we suggest that H2B ubiquitination acts as a master switch that controls the site-selective histone methylation patterns responsible for this silencing.

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Figure 1: Regulation of Lys-79 methylation on histone H3.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, 22908, Virginia, USA
    Scott D. Briggs, Zu-Wen Sun & C. David Allis
  2. Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, 27599, North Carolina, USA
    Tiaojiang Xiao & Brian D. Strahl
  3. Departments of Chemistry and Pathology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 22908, Virginia, USA
    Jennifer A. Caldwell, Jeffrey Shabanowitz & Donald F. Hunt

Authors

  1. Scott D. Briggs
  2. Tiaojiang Xiao
  3. Zu-Wen Sun
  4. Jennifer A. Caldwell
  5. Jeffrey Shabanowitz
  6. Donald F. Hunt
  7. C. David Allis
  8. Brian D. Strahl

Corresponding author

Correspondence toBrian D. Strahl.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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This advance online publication (AOP) Nature paper should be as “Author(s) Nature, 14 July 2002 (doi:10.1038/nature00970)”. Once the print version (identical to the AOP) is published, the citation becomes “Author(s) Nature volume, page (year); advance online publication 14 July 2002 (doi: 10.1038/nature00970)”.

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Briggs, S., Xiao, T., Sun, ZW. et al. _Trans_-histone regulatory pathway in chromatin.Nature 418, 498 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature00970

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