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Isolation and Cultivation of Neural Progenitors Followed by Chromatin-Immunoprecipitation of Histone 3 Lysine 79 Dimethylation Mark
Published on: January 26, 2018
H3K64 trimethylation marks heterochromatin and is dynamically remodeled during developmental reprogramming
Sylvain Daujat1, Thomas Weiss, Fabio Mohn
1Max-Planck-Institute for Immunobiology, Freiburg, Germany.
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology
|June 30, 2009
Summary
Trimethylation of histone H3 at lysine 64 (H3K64me3) is a new repressive chromatin mark. This histone modification is dynamic during mammalian epigenetic reprogramming, suggesting a role in development.
Area of Science:
- Epigenetics
- Molecular Biology
- Genomics
Background:
- Histone modifications regulate DNA-dependent processes.
- Lys64 of histone H3 (H3K64) is structurally important.
- Understanding novel histone marks is crucial for epigenetics.
Purpose of the Study:
- Identify and characterize novel histone modifications.
- Investigate the role of H3K64me3 in epigenetic regulation.
- Determine the dynamic behavior of H3K64me3 during development.
Main Methods:
- Chromatin immunoprecipitation.
- Mass spectrometry-based proteomics.
- Analysis of histone modifications in primordial germ cells and early mouse embryos.
Main Results:
- Identified trimethylation of H3K64 (H3K64me3) as a novel histone modification.
- H3K64me3 is enriched in pericentric heterochromatin and transcriptionally inactive regions.
- H3K64me3 exhibits dynamic changes during mammalian epigenetic reprogramming events.
Conclusions:
- H3K64me3 is a previously uncharacterized histone modification localized to repressive chromatin.
- H3K64me3 turnover is important during development, particularly in germ cells and early embryos.
- H3K64me3 may function to stabilize nucleosomes in a repressed state.
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