组蛋白赖氨酸甲基化研究进展

Advance of histone lysine methylation

组蛋白是染色质的核心,其尾部的共价修饰组成组蛋白密码,调节许多生物学事件。组蛋白赖氨酸甲基化作为共价修饰的一种在基因表达调控、X染色体失活、基因组印迹、DNA修补等生物学过程中起重要作用。近年来随着更多的组蛋白赖氨酸甲基转移酶及作用蛋白的鉴定,对组蛋白赖氨酸甲基化的功能有了进一步认识。组蛋白赖氨酸甲基化在基因表达调控中的作用已成为表观遗传学研究的热点。

Historic is the nucleus of chromatin, the covalent modifications in its tails form the histone codes that regulate a number of biological processes. Histone lysine methylation has important functions in many biological processes that include gene expression, X-chromosome inactivation, gene imprinting and DNA repair. The identification of more and more histone lysine methyltransferases and effector proteins in recent years has increased our understanding of the functions of histone lysine methylation. The role of histone lysine methylation in the gene expression regulation has turned into the hotspot of epigenetics.