Involvement of KDM1C histone demethylase-OTLD1 otubain-like histone deubiquitinase complexes in plant gene repression.

Covalent modifications of histones, such as acetylation, methylation and ubiquitination, are central for regulation of gene expression. Heterochromatic gene silencing, for example, is associated with hypoacetylation, methylation and demethylation, and deubiquitination of specific amino acid residues in histone molecules. Many of these changes can be effected by histone-modifying repressor complexes that include histone lysine demethylases, such as KDM1 in animals and KDM1C in plants. However, whereas KDM1-containing repressor complexes have been implicated in histone demethylation, methylation and deacetylation, whether or not they can also mediate histone deubiquitination remains unknown. We identify an Arabidopsis otubain-like deubiquitinase OTLD1 which directly interacts with the Arabidopsis KDM1C in planta, and use one target gene to exemplify that both OTLD1 and KDM1C are involved in transcriptional gene repression via histone deubiquitination and demethylation. We also show that OTLD1 binds plant chromatin and has enzymatic histone deubiquitinase activity, specific for the H2B histone. Thus, we suggest that, during gene repression, lysine demethylases can directly interact and function in a protein complex with histone deubiquitinases.