Nucleic Acids Research Advance Access published online on October 25, 2007
Nucleic Acids Research, doi:10.1093/nar/gkm726
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nucleic Acid Enzymes |
Automethylation of G9a and its implication in wider substrate specificity and HP1 binding
1New England Biolabs, 240 County Road, Ipswich, MA 01938-2723 and 2Department of Biological Chemistry, Gene Regulation Program, Jonsson Cancer Center, 10833 LeConte Ave., UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1737, USA
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +1 978 380-7227; Fax: +1 978 921-1350; Email: pradhan{at}neb.com
Received July 19, 2007. Revised August 25, 2007. Accepted August 31, 2007.
Methylation of lysine residues on histones participates in transcriptional gene regulation. Lysine 9 methylation of histone H3 is a transcriptional repression signal, mediated by a family of SET domain containing AdoMet-dependent enzymes. G9a methyltransferase is a euchromatic histone H3 lysine 9 methyltransferase. Here, G9a is shown to methylate other cellular proteins, apart from histone H3, including automethylation of K239 residue. Automethylation of G9a did not impair or activate the enzymatic activity in vitro. The automethylation motif of G9a flanking target K239 (ARKT) has similarity with histone H3 lysine 9 regions (ARKS), and is identical to amino acids residues in EuHMT (ARKT) and mAM (ARKT). Under steady-state kinetic assay conditions, full-length G9a methylates peptides representing ARKS/T motif of H3, G9a, mAM and EuHMT efficiently. Automethylation of G9a at ARKT motif creates a binding site for HP1 class of protein and mutation of lysine in the motif impairs this binding. In COS-7 cells GFP fusion of the wild-type G9a co-localized with HP1
and HP1
isoforms whereas the G9a mutant with K239A displayed poor co-localization. Thus, apart from transcriptional repression and regulatory roles of lysine methylation, the non-histone protein methylation may create binding sites for cellular protein–protein interactions.
The authors wish it to be known that, in their opinion, the first two authors should be regarded as joint First Authors.
![]()
CiteULike
Connotea
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
Y. Chinenov, M. A. Sacta, A. R. Cruz, and I. Rogatsky GRIP1-associated SET-domain methyltransferase in glucocorticoid receptor target gene expression PNAS, December 23, 2008; 105(51): 20185 - 20190. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
M. E. Gazzar, B. K. Yoza, X. Chen, J. Hu, G. A. Hawkins, and C. E. McCall G9a and HP1 Couple Histone and DNA Methylation to TNF{alpha} Transcription Silencing during Endotoxin Tolerance J. Biol. Chem., November 21, 2008; 283(47): 32198 - 32208. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
E. A. Williamson, K. K. Rasila, L. K. Corwin, J. Wray, B. D. Beck, V. Severns, C. Mobarak, S.-H. Lee, J. A. Nickoloff, and R. Hromas The SET and transposase domain protein Metnase enhances chromosome decatenation: regulation by automethylation Nucleic Acids Res., October 1, 2008; 36(18): 5822 - 5831. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
O. Pless, E. Kowenz-Leutz, M. Knoblich, J. Lausen, M. Beyermann, M. J. Walsh, and A. Leutz G9a-mediated Lysine Methylation Alters the Function of CCAAT/Enhancer-binding Protein-{beta} J. Biol. Chem., September 26, 2008; 283(39): 26357 - 26363. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||


