Methylation of histone H3 Lys 4 in coding regions of active genes.
Posttranslational modifications of histone tails regulate chromatin structure and transcription. Here we present global analyses of histone acetylation and histone H3 Lys 4 methylation patterns in yeast. We observe a significant correlation between acetylation of histones H3 and H4 in promoter regions and transcriptional activity. In contrast, we find that dimethylation of histone H3 Lys 4 in coding regions correlates with transcriptional activity. The histone methyltransferase Set1 is required to maintain expression of these active, promoter-acetylated, and coding region-methylated genes. Global comparisons reveal that genomic regions deacetylated by the yeast enzymes Rpd3 and Hda1 overlap extensively with Lys 4 hypo- but not hypermethylated regions. In the context of recent studies showing that Lys 4 methylation precludes histone deacetylase recruitment, we conclude that Set1 facilitates transcription, in part, by protecting active coding regions from deacetylation.
Bernstein
Bradley E
BE
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Humphrey
Emily L
EL
Erlich
Rachel L
RL
Schneider
Robert
R
Bouman
Peter
P
Liu
Jun S
JS
Kouzarides
Tony
T
Schreiber
Stuart L
SL
D000107:Acetylation; D001483:Base Sequence; D019175:DNA Methylation; D017931:DNA Primers; D006570:Heterochromatin / Q000378:metabolism; D006657:Histones / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D008239:Lysine / Q000378:metabolism*; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
D017931:DNA Primers; D006570:Heterochromatin; D006657:Histones; D008239:Lysine