Department of Biology, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.
J Biol Chem. 2009 Dec 11;284(50):34870-9. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M109.046250. Epub 2009 Oct 11.
Ubiquitylation of histone H2B and/or a component of the system that ubiquitylates H2B is required for methylation of histone H3 at lysine 4 (H3K4) in yeasts and probably in humans. In this study, the single ubiquitylation site was mapped to conserved lysine 115 of the C-terminal region of histone H2B in the single-cell model organism Tetrahymena thermophila. In strains lacking H2B ubiquitylation, H3K4 methylation was not detectably affected. As in other organisms, the E2 ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme Ubc2 and the E3 ubiquitin ligase Bre1 were required for H2B ubiquitylation. However, neither enzyme was required for H3K4 methylation. These studies argue that, in T. thermophila, the histone ubiquitylation mechanism is not required for H3K4 methylation, demonstrating that different organisms can speak different languages in the "cross-talk" among post-translational modifications on different histones.
泛素化组蛋白 H2B 和/或泛素化 H2B 的系统的一个组成部分,对于酵母中组蛋白 H3 在赖氨酸 4(H3K4)的甲基化是必需的,在人类中可能也是如此。在这项研究中,单一泛素化位点被映射到单细胞生物秀丽隐杆线虫中组蛋白 H2B 的 C 末端区域保守的赖氨酸 115 上。在缺乏 H2B 泛素化的菌株中,H3K4 甲基化没有被检测到。与其他生物一样,E2 泛素结合酶 Ubc2 和 E3 泛素连接酶 Bre1 都需要 H2B 泛素化。然而,这两种酶都不需要 H3K4 甲基化。这些研究表明,在嗜热四膜虫中,组蛋白泛素化机制对于 H3K4 甲基化不是必需的,证明了不同的生物体可以在不同组蛋白的翻译后修饰之间的“对话”中使用不同的语言。