The Dnmt3a PWWP Domain Reads Histone 3 Lysine 36 Trimethylation and Guides DNA Methylation

• DOI: 10.1074/jbc.m109.089433
• Publication Date: 2010-06-12T01:48:21Z
• Authors: Arunkumar Dhayalan; Arumugam Rajavelu; Philipp Rathert; Raluca Tamas; Renata Z. Jurkowska; Sergey Ragozin; Albert Jeltsch
• Keywords: Histone Methylation; Epigenomics

The Dnmt3a DNA methyltransferase contains in its N-terminal part a PWWP domain that is involved chromatin targeting. Here, we have investigated the interaction of with modified histone tails using peptide arrays and show it specifically recognizes 3 lysine 36 trimethylation mark. H3K36me3 known to be repressive modification correlated methylation mammals heterochromatin <i>Schizosaccharomyces pombe</i>. These results were confirmed by equilibrium binding studies pulldown experiments native histones purified nucleosomes. PWWP-H3K36me3 important for subnuclear localization enhanced yellow fluorescent protein-fused Dnmt3a. Furthermore, increases activity nucleosomal as observed nucleosomes isolated from human cells after demethylation 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine substrate data suggest targeting carrying mark, model agreement several on genome-wide distribution H3K36me3.