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Epigenetics

Histones pass the message on

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 16, page 3 (2015)Cite this article

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H3K9 ... methylation can be inherited over >50 generations after removal of the sequence-specific initiator

Post-translational modifications of histones are associated with patterns of gene expression although, until now, it was unclear whether such epigenetic information could be transferred via histone modifications independently of DNA sequence or DNA methylation. To see whether histones can act as carriers of epigenetic information, the researchers engineered a Clr4 methyltransferase in which the usual chromodomain that recruits Clr4 to methylated H3K9 was replaced by a tetracycline repressor (TetR) domain to target the resultant fusion protein instead to genomically integrated tetO DNA sequences. The recruitment of this fusion protein (termed TetR–Clr4-I) is abolished in the presence of tetracycline, thus permitting the testing of initiator-independent maintenance.

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References

  1. Ragunathan, K., Jih, G. & Moazed, D. Epigenetic inheritance uncoupled from sequence-specific recruitment. Science http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1258699 (2014)

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  1. Bryony Jones
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Jones, B. Histones pass the message on. Nat Rev Genet 16, 3 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3876

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