Histone arginine methylation keeps RUNX1 target genes in an intermediate state

Histone methylation keeps the brakes on autophagy.

Histone Deimination Antagonizes Arginine Methylation

Methylation of arginine residues within histone H3 has been linked to active transcription. This modification appears on the estrogen-regulated pS2 promoter when the CARM1 methyltransferase is recruited during transcriptional activation. Here we describe a process, deimination, that converts histone arginine to citrulline and antagonizes arginine methylation. We show that peptidyl arginine deim...

Histone H3K4 methylation keeps centromeres open for business.

Eukaryotic centromeres are composed of a combination of nucleosomes containing the histone H3 variant CENP-A and canonical H3 di-methylated at lysine 4 (H3K4me2). Many questions exist over the functional importance of H3K4me2 nucleosomes within the centromere region. In this issue of The EMBO Journal, Bergmann et al (2011) reveal a role for H3K4me2 and transcription in CENP-A maintenance. They ...

Histone arginine methylation and its dynamic regulation.

Methylation of histones by protein arginine methyltransferases (PRMTs) is increasingly being found to play an important and dynamic role in gene regulation. In mammals, PRMT1- and CARM1-catalyzed histone asymmetric dimethyl-arginine is involved in gene activation while PRMT5-catalyzed histone symmetric dimethyl-arginine is associated with gene repression. Insight into mechanisms by which histon...

Histone arginine methylation in cocaine action in the nucleus accumbens.

Repeated cocaine exposure regulates transcriptional regulation within the nucleus accumbens (NAc), and epigenetic mechanisms-such as histone acetylation and methylation on Lys residues-have been linked to these lasting actions of cocaine. In contrast to Lys methylation, the role of histone Arg (R) methylation remains underexplored in addiction models. Here we show that protein-R-methyltransfera...