Structural basis for PRC2 decoding of active histone methylation marks H3K36me2/3
- Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Germany
- University of California, Berkeley, United States
- McGill University, Canada
Abstract
Repression of genes by Polycomb requires that PRC2 modifies their chromatin by trimethylating lysine 27 on histone H3 (H3K27me3). At transcriptionally active genes, di- and trimethylated H3K36 inhibit PRC2. Here, the cryo-EM structure of PRC2 on dinucleosomes reveals how binding of its catalytic subunit EZH2 to nucleosomal DNA orients the H3 N-terminus via an extended network of interactions to place H3K27 into the active site. Unmodified H3K36 occupies a critical position in the EZH2-DNA interface. Mutation of H3K36 to arginine or alanine inhibits H3K27 methylation by PRC2 on nucleosomes in vitro. Accordingly, Drosophila H3K36A and H3K36R mutants show reduced levels of H3K27me3 and defective Polycomb repression of HOX genes. The relay of interactions between EZH2, the nucleosomal DNA and the H3 N-terminus therefore creates the geometry that permits allosteric inhibition of PRC2 by methylated H3K36 in transcriptionally active chromatin.
Data availability
The sequence datasets generated in this study have been deposited in GEO (accession number: GSE148254). The protein structure data reported in this study have been deposited in PDB under the accession code 7AT8 and in the EMDB under the accession codes EMD-11910 and EMD-11912
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB1064)
- Jürg Müller
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
- Jürg Müller
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Jerry L. Workman, Stowers Institute for Medical Research, United States
Version history
- Received: August 10, 2020
- Accepted: November 18, 2020
- Accepted Manuscript published: November 19, 2020 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: December 9, 2020 (version 2)
- Version of Record updated: December 11, 2020 (version 3)
Copyright
© 2020, Finogenova et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Structural basis for PRC2 decoding of active histone methylation marks H3K36me2/3
eLife 9:e61964.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.61964
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