Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Molecular mechanism of histone H3K4me3 recognition by plant homeodomain of ING2

Abstract

Covalent modifications of histone tails have a key role in regulating chromatin structure and controlling transcriptional activity. In eukaryotes, histone H3 trimethylated at lysine 4 (H3K4me3) is associated with active chromatin and gene expression1,2,3,4. We recently found that plant homeodomain (PHD) finger of tumour suppressor ING2 (inhibitor of growth 2) binds H3K4me3 and represents a new family of modules that target this epigenetic mark5. The molecular mechanism of H3K4me3 recognition, however, remains unknown. Here we report a 2.0 Å resolution structure of the mouse ING2 PHD finger in complex with a histone H3 peptide trimethylated at lysine 4. The H3K4me3 tail is bound in an extended conformation in a deep and extensive binding site consisting of elements that are conserved among the ING family of proteins. The trimethylammonium group of Lys 4 is recognized by the aromatic side chains of Y215 and W238 residues, whereas the intermolecular hydrogen-bonding and complementary surface interactions, involving Ala 1, Arg 2, Thr 3 and Thr 6 of the peptide, account for the PHD finger's high specificity and affinity. Substitution of the binding site residues disrupts H3K4me3 interaction in vitro and impairs the ability of ING2 to induce apoptosis in vivo. Strong binding of other ING and YNG PHD fingers suggests that the recognition of H3K4me3 histone code is a general feature of the ING/YNG proteins. Elucidation of the mechanisms underlying this novel function of PHD fingers provides a basis for deciphering the role of the ING family of tumour suppressors in chromatin regulation and signalling.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Structure of ING2 PHD finger in complex with a histone H3 peptide trimethylated at Lys 4.
Figure 2: ING2 PHD finger recognizes H3K4me3.
Figure 3: ING2 function requires its H3K4me3 binding activity.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Santos-Rosa, H. et al. Active genes are tri-methylated at K4 of histone H3. Nature 419, 407–411 (2002)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Schneider, R. et al. Histone H3 lysine 4 methylation patterns in higher eukaryotic genes. Nature Cell Biol. 6, 73–77 (2004)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Briggs, S. D. et al. Histone H3 lysine 4 methylation is mediated by Set1 and required for cell growth and rDNA silencing in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Genes Dev. 15, 3286–3295 (2001)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Sims, R. J. III, Nishioka, K. & Reinberg, D. Histone lysine methylation: a signature for chromatin function. Trends Genet. 19, 629–639 (2003)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Shi, X. et al. ING2 PHD domain links histone H3 lysine 4 methylation to active gene repression. Nature doi:10.1038/nature04835 (2006).

  6. Strahl, B. D. & Allis, C. D. The language of covalent histone modifications. Nature 403, 41–45 (2000)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Dhalluin, C. et al. Structure and ligand of a histone acetyltransferase bromodomain. Nature 399, 491–496 (1999)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Jacobson, R. H., Ladurner, A. G., King, D. S. & Tjian, R. Structure and function of a human TAFII250 double bromodomain module. Science 288, 1422–1425 (2000)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Bannister, A. J. et al. Selective recognition of methylated lysine 9 on histone H3 by the HP1 chromo domain. Nature 410, 120–124 (2001)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Lachner, M., O'Carroll, D., Rea, S., Mechtler, K. & Jenuwein, T. Methylation of histone H3 lysine 9 creates a binding site for HP1 proteins. Nature 410, 116–120 (2001)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Nielsen, P. R. et al. Structure of the HP1 chromodomain bound to histone H3 methylated at lysine 9. Nature 416, 103–107 (2002)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Jacobs, S. A. & Khorasanizadeh, S. Structure of HP1 chromodomain bound to a lysine 9-methylated histone H3 tail. Science 295, 2080–2083 (2002)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Flanagan, J. F. et al. Double chromodomains cooperate to recognize the methylated histone H3 tail. Nature 438, 1181–1185 (2005)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Ragvin, A. et al. Nucleosome binding by the bromodomain and PHD finger of the transcriptional cofactor p300. J. Mol. Biol. 337, 773–788 (2004)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Eberharter, A., Vetter, I., Ferreira, R. & Becker, P. B. ACF1 improves the effectiveness of nucleosome mobilization by ISWI through PHD-histone contacts. EMBO J. 23, 4029–4039 (2004)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  16. Pascual, J., Martinez-Yamout, M., Dyson, H. J. & Wright, P. E. Structure of the PHD zinc finger from human Williams-Beuren syndrome transcription factor. J. Mol. Biol. 304, 723–729 (2000)

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Fischle, W. et al. Molecular basis for the discrimination of repressive methyl-lysine marks in histone H3 by Polycomb and HP1 chromodomains. Genes Dev. 17, 1870–1881 (2003)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  18. Min, J., Zhang, Y. & Xu, R. M. Structural basis for specific binding of Polycomb chromodomain to histone H3 methylated at Lys 27. Genes Dev. 17, 1823–1828 (2003)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  19. Nagashima, M. et al. DNA damage-inducible gene p33ING2 negatively regulates cell proliferation through acetylation of p53. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 98, 9671–9676 (2001)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  20. Doyon, Y. et al. ING tumor suppressor proteins are critical regulators of chromatin acetylation required for genome expression and perpetuation. Mol. Cell 21, 51–64 (2006)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Campos, E. I., Chin, M. Y., Kuo, W. H. & Li, G. Biological functions of the ING family tumor suppressors. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 61, 2597–2613 (2004)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Loewith, R., Meijer, M., Lees-Miller, S. P., Riabowol, K. & Young, D. Three yeast proteins related to the human candidate tumor suppressor p33(ING1) are associated with histone acetyltransferase activities. Mol. Cell. Biol. 20, 3807–3816 (2000)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  23. Kuzmichev, A., Zhang, Y., Erdjument-Bromage, H., Tempst, P. & Reinberg, D. Role of the Sin3-histone deacetylase complex in growth regulation by the candidate tumor suppressor p33(ING1). Mol. Cell. Biol. 22, 835–848 (2002)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  24. Otwinowski, Z. & Minor, W. Processing of X-ray diffraction data collected in oscillation mode. Methods Enzymol. 276, 307–326 (1997)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Jones, T. A., Zou, J. Y., Cowan, S. W. & Kjeldgaard, M. Improved methods for building protein models in electron density maps and the location of errors in these models. Acta Crystallogr. A 47, 110–119 (1991)

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Brünger, A. T. et al. Crystallography & NMR system: A new software suite for macromolecular structure determination. Acta Crystallogr. D 54, 905–921 (1998)

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Grzesiek, S., Stahl, S. J., Wingfield, P. T. & Bax, A. The CD4 determinant for downregulation by HIV-1 Nef directly binds to Nef. Mapping of the Nef binding surface by NMR. Biochemistry 35, 10256–10261 (1996)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank D. Bentley and J. Tyler for discussions; M. Grunstein for providing GST fusion histone tails; B. Tripet and the Biophysics Core Facility for synthesis of the histone peptides; the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center's X-ray Core Facility and NMR Core Facility, supported by the University of Colorado Cancer Center; and A. Heroux and the mail-in data collection service at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) for synchrotron data collection. Financial support for NSLS comes principally from the Offices of Biological and Environmental Research and of Basic Energy Sciences of the US Department of Energy, and from the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This research was supported by grants from the NIH (V.V.V., O.G. and T.G.K.), Burroughs Welcome (O.G.), American Heart Association (T.G.K.) and University of Colorado Cancer Center (T.G.K.). T.G.K. is a NARSAD Young Investigator and an American Cancer Society Research Scholar.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tatiana G. Kutateladze.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The coordinates have been deposited in the Protein Data Bank under accession number 2G6Q. Reprints and permissions information is available at npg.nature.com/reprintsandpermissions. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Figure 1

Alignment of PHD domain sequences: absolutely, moderately and weakly conserved residues are colored brown, green and yellow, respectively. (JPG 221 kb)

Supplementary Figure 2

Determination of the specificity of the ING2 PHD finger. (JPG 178 kb)

Supplementary Figure 3

Substitution of the active site residues of the ING2 PHD finger for Ala does not disrupt the structure. (JPG 176 kb)

Supplementary Notes

This file contains Supplementary Figure Legends and Supplementary Methods. (DOC 41 kb)

Supplementary Table

Data collection and refinement statistics. Table of X-ray statistics. (DOC 57 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Peña, P., Davrazou, F., Shi, X. et al. Molecular mechanism of histone H3K4me3 recognition by plant homeodomain of ING2. Nature 442, 100–103 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04814

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04814

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing