Histone post-translational modifications articles from across Nature Portfolio

The use of biomarkers of ageing is crucial for investigating age-related processes. This Review discusses biomarkers of ageing and of ageing-associated physiological changes, at the cellular, tissue and organism levels in humans and non-human primates.

Lys l-lactylation of histones is a newly identified short-chain acylation that regulates transcription and other cellular processes, with diverse pathophysiological outcomes, notably in cancer. This Review discusses the unique biochemical features of Lys l-lactylation and its dynamic regulation by various metabolism-related mechanisms.

Khan et al. report a non-catalytic function of the methyltransferase SETD2 in regulating nuclear morphology and genome integrity. The SETD2 amino terminus functions as a scaffold helping CDK1 associate with lamins during nuclear-envelope disassembly

A highly potent and selective small-molecule catalytic inhibitor of the protein lysine methyltransferase NSD2 shows therapeutic efficacy in preclinical models of KRAS-driven pancreatic cancer and lung cancer.

The function of histone lysine β-hydroxybutyrylation (Kbhb) is unclear in plants. Here, the authors show that H3K9bhb is enriched at transcription start sites in rice and regulates gene expression during immune responses.

Transcriptional memory is a phenomenon that enables cells to memorize transient gene activation. A study now sheds light on epigenetic mechanisms conveying mitotic-heritable memory in the context of the IFNγ model.

Repair of DNA double-strand breaks requires chromatin opening; however, the mechanisms involved were unclear. This work shows that sequential histone deamidation and acetylation modifications induce chromatin decompaction by reducing positive charge at the DNA–nucleosome interface.

PRC2-dependent H3K27 methylation must be excluded from active genes to support appropriate transcriptional programs. Structures of PRC2 bound to nucleosome substrates containing histone modifications associated with active transcription explain how PRC2 is inhibited at active genes.

In this Tools of the Trade article, Andrey Tvardovskiy and Saulius Lukauskas introduce the web resource MARCS, which offers a set of visualization tools to explore chromatin regulatory circuits from either a protein- or modification-centred perspective.

An elegant study revealed the distinct roles of different H3K9 methylation states in heterochromatin formation and function.

The microbiome is implicated in a study that involves the metabolism of dietary fibre into short-chain fatty acids, which provides a biochemical link to the poorly understood histone butyrylation.