title: Methylation of histone H3 Lys 4 in coding regions of active genes.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Bradley E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Bernstein
authors.forename: Emily L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Humphrey
authors.forename: Rachel L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Erlich
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bouman
authors.forename: Jun S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Tony
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kouzarides
authors.forename: Stuart L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Schreiber
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D006570:Heterochromatin; D006657:Histones; D008239:Lysine