Keeping it in the family: diverse histone recognition by conserved structural folds

Abstract

Epigenetic regulation of gene transcription relies on an array of recurring structural domains that have evolved to recognize post-translational modifications on histones. The roles of bromodomains, PHD fingers, and the Royal family domains in the recognition of histone modifications to direct transcription have been well characterized. However, only through recent structural studies has it been realized that these basic folds are capable of interacting with increasingly more complex histone modification landscapes, illuminating how nature has concocted a way to accomplish more with less. Here we review the recent biochemical and structural studies of several conserved folds that recognize modified as well as unmodified histone sequences, and discuss their implications on gene expression.

Keywords::

• chromatin
• histone modification
• acetylation
• methylation
• phosphorylation
• bromodomain
• chromodomain
• PHD finger
• Tudor
• MBT

Acknowledgment

The authors wish to thank M. Walsh for helpful discussion and M. Walsh, H. Song, Q. Zhang and L. Zeng for providing their unpublished structural data for this review.

Declaration of interest

This work was supported by a Terry Fox Foundation postdoctoral fellowship to K.L.Y. from the National Cancer Institute of Canada and grants to M.-M.Z. from the Empire State Stem Cell Trust Fund (NYSTEM) and the National Institutes of Health (R01CA087658-10, R01GM073207-04, R01HG004508-02, RC1DA028776-01). The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Editor: Michael M. Cox