BACKGROUND Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome (RSTS) is a congenital neurodevelopmental disorder defined by postnatal growth deficiency, characteristic skeletal abnormalities and mental retardation and caused by mutations in the genes encoding for the transcriptional co-activators with intrinsic lysine acetyltransferase (KAT) activity CBP and p300. Previous studies have shown that neuronal histone acety...

BACKGROUND Hyperglycemia plays a pivotal role in the development of diabetic nephropathy (DN) and may be related to epigenetic metabolic memory. One of the most crucial epigenetic mechanisms is histone modification, which is associated with the expression of a fibrosis factor in vascular injury. Aim .In this study, we investigated the ubiquitination of histones H2A and H2B to explore the epigen...

Reactive oxygen species, including hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)), are generated during ischemia-reperfusion and are critically involved in acute renal failure. The present studies examined the role of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) pathway in H(2)O(2)-induced renal proximal tubular cells (RPTC) apoptosis. Exposure of RPTC to 1 mM H(2)O(2) resulted in apoptosis and activation of ...

The mechanism by which ubiquitination of histone H2B (H2Bub1) regulates H3-K4 and -K79 methylation and the histone H2A-H2B chaperone Spt16-mediated nucleosome dynamics during transcription is not fully understood. Upon investigating the effect of H2Bub1 on chromatin structure, we find that contrary to the supposed role for H2Bub1 in opening up chromatin, it is important for nucleosome stability...

BACKGROUND Histones are essential for chromatin packing, yet free histones not incorporated into chromatin are toxic. While in most cells multiple regulatory mechanisms prevent accumulation of excess histones, early Drosophila embryos contain massive extranuclear histone stores, thought to be essential for development. Excess histones H2A, H2B, and H2Av are bound to lipid droplets, ubiquitous f...

In yeast cells, the Rtf1 and Paf1 components of the Paf1 transcriptional elongation complex are important for recruitment of Set1, the histone H3-lysine 4 (H3-Lys4) methylase, to a highly localized domain at the 5' portion of active mRNA coding regions. Here, we show that Rtf1 is essential for global methylation of H3-Lys4 and H3-Lys79, but not H3-Lys36. This role of Rtf1 resembles that of Rad6...

Centromere protein A (CENP-A) is a variant of histone H3 with more than 60% sequence identity at the C-terminal histone fold domain. CENP-A specifically locates to active centromeres of animal chromosomes and therefore is believed to be a component of the specialized centromeric nucleosomes on which the kinetochores are assembled. Here we report that CENP-A, highly purified from HeLa cells, can...

1. A calmodulin-binding protein of apparent mol.wt. 19 000 has been purified from chicken gizzard. Similar proteins have been isolated from bovine uterus, rabbit skeletal muscle and rabbit liver. 2. These proteins migrated as an equimolar complex with bovine brain calmodulin on electroporesis on polyacrylamide gels in the presence of Ca2+ and 6M-urea. The complex was dissociated in the presence...

Nucleosomes are multi-component macromolecular assemblies which present a formidable obstacle to enzymatic activities that require access to the DNA, e.g. DNA and RNA polymerases. The mechanism and pathway(s) by which nucleosomes disassemble to allow DNA access are not well understood. Here we present evidence from single molecule FRET experiments for a previously uncharacterized intermediate s...