Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Carbondale, IL 62901, USA.
FEBS J. 2010 Apr;277(8):1805-21. doi: 10.1111/j.1742-4658.2010.07607.x. Epub 2010 Mar 4.
The fourth lysine of histone H3 is post-translationally modified by a methyl group via the action of histone methyltransferase, and such a covalent modification is associated with transcriptionally active and/or repressed chromatin states. Thus, histone H3 lysine 4 methylation has a crucial role in maintaining normal cellular functions. In fact, misregulation of this covalent modification has been implicated in various types of cancer and other diseases. Therefore, a large number of studies over recent years have been directed towards histone H3 lysine 4 methylation and the enzymes involved in this covalent modification in eukaryotes ranging from yeast to human. These studies revealed a set of histone H3 lysine 4 methyltransferases with important cellular functions in different eukaryotes, as discussed here.
组蛋白 H3 的第四个赖氨酸通过组蛋白甲基转移酶的作用被甲基化修饰,这种共价修饰与转录活跃和/或转录抑制的染色质状态有关。因此,组蛋白 H3 赖氨酸 4 甲基化在维持正常细胞功能中起着至关重要的作用。事实上,这种共价修饰的失调与各种类型的癌症和其他疾病有关。因此,近年来的大量研究都集中在组蛋白 H3 赖氨酸 4 甲基化及其在真核生物(从酵母到人)中涉及的酶上。正如这里所讨论的,这些研究揭示了一组具有不同真核生物中重要细胞功能的组蛋白 H3 赖氨酸 4 甲基转移酶。