Rothbart Scott B, Dickson Bradley M, Strahl Brian D
Center for Epigenetics, Van Andel Research Institute, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Cancer Discov. 2015 Mar;5(3):228-30. doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-15-0073.
Histone lysine methylation is a critical regulator of chromatin-templated processes such as gene transcription and DNA repair, and is dynamically controlled by enzymes that write and erase this posttranslational modification. Although histone methylation has been well studied, the functions of nonhistone lysine methylation and its regulatory enzymes, particularly outside the nucleus, are poorly defined. In this issue of Cancer Discovery, Van Rechem and colleagues shed light on a new role for the lysine demethylase KDM4A as a regulator of protein translation and identify a single-nucleotide polymorphism in the KDM4A gene as a candidate biomarker for mTOR inhibitor therapy.
组蛋白赖氨酸甲基化是染色质模板化过程（如基因转录和DNA修复）的关键调节因子，并由写入和擦除这种翻译后修饰的酶动态控制。尽管组蛋白甲基化已得到充分研究，但非组蛋白赖氨酸甲基化及其调节酶的功能，尤其是在细胞核外的功能，仍不清楚。在本期《癌症发现》中，范·雷切姆及其同事揭示了赖氨酸去甲基化酶KDM4A作为蛋白质翻译调节因子的新作用，并确定KDM4A基因中的一个单核苷酸多态性作为mTOR抑制剂治疗的候选生物标志物。
