Nucleic Acids Research Advance Access originally published online on December 1, 2007
Nucleic Acids Research 2008 36(2):570-577; doi:10.1093/nar/gkm1057
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Nucleic Acids Research, 2008, Vol. 36, No. 2 570-577
© 2007 The Author(s)
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Molecular Biology |
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-Formylation of lysine is a widespread post-translational modification of nuclear proteins occurring at residues involved in regulation of chromatin function
niewski*Department of Proteomics and Signal Transduction, Max-Planck Institute for Biochemistry, Am Klopferspitz 18, D-82152 Martinsried, Germany
*To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +49 89 8578 2205; Fax: +49 89 8578 2219; Email: jwisniew{at}biochem.mpg.de
Received July 12, 2007. Revised November 5, 2007. Accepted November 9, 2007.
Post-translational modification of histones and other chromosomal proteins regulates chromatin conformation and gene activity. Methylation and acetylation of lysyl residues are among the most frequently described modifications in these proteins. Whereas these modifications have been studied in detail, very little is known about a recently discovered chemical modification, the N
-lysine formylation, in histones and other nuclear proteins. Here we mapped, for the first time, the sites of lysine formylation in histones and several other nuclear proteins. We found that core and linker histones are formylated at multiple lysyl residues located both in the tails and globular domains of histones. In core histones, formylation was found at lysyl residues known to be involved in organization of nucleosomal particles that are frequently acetylated and methylated. In linker histones and high mobility group proteins, multiple formylation sites were mapped to residues with important role in DNA binding. N-lysine formylation in chromosomal proteins is relatively abundant, suggesting that it may interfere with epigenetic mechanisms governing chromatin function, which could lead to deregulation of the cell and disease.