title: Analytical strategies used to identify the readers of histone modifications: A review.
abstract: The so-called "readers" of histone post-translational modifications (HPTMs) refer to proteins or complexes that are recruited to HPTMs thus eventually regulate gene transcription. To identify these "readers", mass spectrometry plays an essential role following various enriching strategies. These enriching methods include the use of modified histone peptides/proteins or chemically synthesized histones/nucleosomes containing desired HPTMs to enrich the readers of HPTMs. Despite the peptide- or protein-based assay is straightforward and easy to perform for most labs, this strategy has limited applications for those weak or combinational interactions among various HPTMs and false-positive results are a potential big problem. While the results derived from synthesized histone proteins/nucleosomes is more reliable as it mimics the real chromatic conditions thus is able to analyze the binders of those cross-talked HPTMs, usually the synthesis is so difficult that their applications are impeded for high throughput analysis. In this review, an overview of these analytical techniques is provided and their advantages and disadvantages are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Nankai University, 300071 Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: Ye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Nankai University, 300071 Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: Yanpu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Institut für Biochemie und Molekularbiologie, Universität Freiburg, Stefan-Meier-Straße 17, 79104 Freiburg, Germany; School of Medical Instrument and Food Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Jungong Road No. 516, 200093 Shanghai, China. Electronic address: enguo.fan@biochemie.uni-freiburg.de.
authors.forename: Enguo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Medical Epigenetics, 2011 Collaborative Innovation Center of Tianjin for Medical Epigenetics, Tianjin Medical University, 300070 Tianjin, China; Department of Chemistry, Nankai University, 300071 Tianjin, China. Electronic address: zhangkai@nankai.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D042421:Histone Code; D006657:Histones / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D011499:Protein Processing, Post-Translational; D011506:Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D015533:Transcriptional Activation
chemical_list: D006657:Histones; D011506:Proteins
keywords: Epigenetic code; Histone post-translational modifications (HPTMs); Mass spectrometry (MS); Readers of histone modifications