PR-Set7-dependent methylation of histone H4 Lys 20 functions in repression of gene expression and is essential for mitosis
- 1Waksman Institute, Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, New Jersey Cancer Center, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854-8020, USA; 2Howard Hughes Medical Institute Division of Nucleic Acid Enzymology, Department of Biochemistry, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA
Abstract
The histone methyl transferase PR-Set7 mediates histone H4 Lys 20 methylation, a mark of constitutive and facultative heterochromatin. We isolated a null mutation in Drosophila PR-Set7 that suppresses position effect variegation, indicating that PR-Set7 indeed functions in silencing general gene expression. In PR-Set7 larval leg and eye discs, the number of cells is lower than normal, and the DNA content in these cells is significantly increased. These data show that PR-Set7-dependent methylation is essential for the process of mitosis. The methylation mark is highly stable and is maintained even in the absence of PR-Set7 protein.
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Footnotes
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Supplemental material is available at http://www.genesdev.org.
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Article published online ahead of print. Article and publication date are at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.1263005.
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↵3 Corresponding author.
↵3 E-MAIL steward{at}waksman.rutgers.edu; FAX (732) 445-5735.
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- Accepted December 27, 2004.
- Received September 16, 2004.
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
