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Distinct transcriptional outputs associated with mono- and dimethylated histone H3 arginine 2

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology volume 16, pages 449–451 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Dimethylation of histone H3 Arg2 (H3R2me2) maintains transcriptional silencing by inhibiting Set1 mediated trimethylation of H3K4. Here we demonstrate that Arg2 is also monomethylated (H3R2me1) in yeast but that its functional characteristics are distinct from H3R2me2: (i) H3R2me1 does not inhibit histone H3 Lys4 (H3K4) methylation; (ii) it is present throughout the coding region of genes; and (iii) it correlates with active transcription. Collectively, these results indicate that different H3R2 methylation states have defined roles in gene expression.

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Figure 1: H3R2me1 does not block activity of the Set1 complex toward H3K4.
Figure 2: H3R2me1 associates with transcriptional activation.
Figure 3: H3R2 is necessary for sporulation.

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Gene Expression Omnibus

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Acknowledgements

We thank members of the T.K. laboratory for helpful discussions and M. Gilchrist for help with depositing genomic data. This work was supported by postdoctoral fellowship grants to A.K. from the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and Marie Curie. The T.K. laboratory is funded by grants from Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and the 6th Research Framework Program of the European Union (Epitron and Heroic).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gurdon Institute and Department of Pathology, Cambridge, CB2 1QN, UK

    Antonis Kirmizis, Helena Santos-Rosa & Tony Kouzarides

  2. EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SD, UK

    Christopher J Penkett

  3. NimbleGen Systems Inc., Madison, 53711, WI, USA

    Michael A Singer & Roland D Green

Authors
  1. Antonis Kirmizis
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  2. Helena Santos-Rosa
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  3. Christopher J Penkett
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  4. Michael A Singer
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  5. Roland D Green
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  6. Tony Kouzarides
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Correspondence to Tony Kouzarides.

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Competing interests

T.K. is a director of Abcam Plc. R.D.G. and M.A.S. are employees of NimbleGen Systems Inc.

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Supplementary Figures 1 and 2, Supplementary Table 1 and Supplementary Methods (PDF 1189 kb)

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Kirmizis, A., Santos-Rosa, H., Penkett, C. et al. Distinct transcriptional outputs associated with mono- and dimethylated histone H3 arginine 2. Nat Struct Mol Biol 16, 449–451 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.1569

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