An aromatic cage is required but not sufficient for binding of Tudor domains of the Polycomblike protein family to H3K36me3

Abstract

Polycomblike (Pcl) proteins are important transcriptional regulators and components of the Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2). The Tudor domains of human homologs PHF1 and PHF19 have been found to recognize trimethylated lysine 36 of histone H3 (H3K36me3); however, the biological role of Tudor domains of other Pcl proteins remains poorly understood. Here, we characterize the molecular basis underlying histone binding activities of the Tudor domains of the Pcl family. In contrast to a predominant view, we found that the methyl lysine-binding aromatic cage is necessary but not sufficient for recognition of H3K36me3 by these Tudor domains and that a hydrophobic patch, adjacent to the aromatic cage, is also required.

Keywords:

• aromatic cage
• histone binding
• polycomblike (Pcl)
• trimethylated lysine 36 of histone H3 (H3K36me3)
• Tudor

Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest

No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed

Acknowledgments

We thank Catherine Musselman for help with experiments.

Funding

This work was supported by NIH grants R01 GM106416 and GM100907 to TGK. JG is an NIH NRSA predoctoral fellow (F31 CA189487).

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