Does Ash1 counteract Polycomb repression by methylating H3K36?

• Polycomb repression is critical to maintain cell type specific genome expression programs in a wide range of multicellular animals. Equally important but less studied is the Trithorax group system, which safeguards Polycomb target genes from the repression in cells where they have to remain active. Based on in vitro studies it was proposed that the Trithorax group system acts via methylation of histone H3 at Lysine 4 (H3K4) and Lysine 36 (H3K36) thereby inhibiting histone methyltransferase activity of the Polycomb complexes. This hypothesis is yet to be comprehensively tested in vivo. Here we used the power of the Drosophila model to investigate how the Trithorax group protein Ash1 and the H3K36 methylation counteract Polycomb repression. We show, for the first time, that Ash1 is the only Drosophila H3K36-specific methyltransferase required to prevent excessive Polycomb repression of homeotic genes. Unexpectedly, our experiments revealed no correlation between the extent of H3K36 methylation and the resistance to Polycomb repression. Furthermore, we find that complete substitution of the zygotic histone H3 with a variant in which Lysine 36 is replaced by Arginine does not cause excessive repression of Drosophila homeotic genes. Together with earlier studies, our results suggest that the model, where the Trithorax group proteins methylate histone H3 to inhibit the histone methyltransferase activity of the Polycomb complexes, may need to be reevaluated.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Genetik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Genetics (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Utvecklingsbiologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Developmental Biology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Polycomb

H3K36 methylation

HOX genes

Trithorax

Ash1

Drosophila

molekylärbiologi

Molecular Biology

genetik

Genetics

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