TY - JOUR
T1 - Mutations that prevent or mimic persistent post-translational modifications of the histone H3 globular domain cause lethality and growth defects in Drosophila
AU - Graves, Hillary K.
AU - Wang, Pingping
AU - Lagarde, Matthew
AU - Chen, Zhihong
AU - Tyler, Jessica K.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Alf Herzig and Jurg Muller for plasmids and fly stocks, Hugo Bellen, Yuchun He, and Hongling Pan for Drosophila embryo injections, Andrew Dong for excellent technical assistance, and Candice Wike for making Fig. 1a using PyMol. We are grateful to Briana Dennehey, Aimee Anderson, and Candice Wike for their comments on the manuscript. H.G. was supported by a fellowship from the Center for Cancer Epigenetics at MD Anderson Cancer Center, and this work was supported by NIH Grant GM064475 to Jessica Tyler.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Graves et al.
PY - 2016/2/29
Y1 - 2016/2/29
N2 - Background: Understanding the function of histone post-translational modifications is the key to deciphering how genomic activities are regulated. Among the least well-understood histone modifications in vivo are those that occur on the surface of the globular domain of histones, despite their causing the most profound structural alterations of the nucleosome in vitro. We utilized a Drosophila system to replace the canonical histone genes with mutated histone transgenes. Results: Mutations predicted to mimic or prevent acetylation on histone H3 lysine (K) 56, K115, K122, and both K115/K122, or to prevent or mimic phosphorylation on H3 threonine (T) 118 and T80, all caused lethality, with the exception of K122R mutants. T118 mutations caused profound growth defects within wing discs, while K115R, K115Q, K56Q, and the K115/K122 mutations caused more subtle growth defects. The H3 K56R and H3 K122R mutations caused no defects in growth, differentiation, or transcription within imaginal discs, indicating that H3 K56 acetylation and K122 acetylation are dispensable for these functions. In agreement, we found the antibody to H3 K122Ac, which was previously used to imply a role for H3 K122Ac in transcription in metazoans, to be non-specific in vivo. Conclusions: Our data suggest that chromatin structural perturbations caused by acetylation of K56, K115, or K122 and phosphorylation of T80 or T118 are important for key developmental processes.
AB - Background: Understanding the function of histone post-translational modifications is the key to deciphering how genomic activities are regulated. Among the least well-understood histone modifications in vivo are those that occur on the surface of the globular domain of histones, despite their causing the most profound structural alterations of the nucleosome in vitro. We utilized a Drosophila system to replace the canonical histone genes with mutated histone transgenes. Results: Mutations predicted to mimic or prevent acetylation on histone H3 lysine (K) 56, K115, K122, and both K115/K122, or to prevent or mimic phosphorylation on H3 threonine (T) 118 and T80, all caused lethality, with the exception of K122R mutants. T118 mutations caused profound growth defects within wing discs, while K115R, K115Q, K56Q, and the K115/K122 mutations caused more subtle growth defects. The H3 K56R and H3 K122R mutations caused no defects in growth, differentiation, or transcription within imaginal discs, indicating that H3 K56 acetylation and K122 acetylation are dispensable for these functions. In agreement, we found the antibody to H3 K122Ac, which was previously used to imply a role for H3 K122Ac in transcription in metazoans, to be non-specific in vivo. Conclusions: Our data suggest that chromatin structural perturbations caused by acetylation of K56, K115, or K122 and phosphorylation of T80 or T118 are important for key developmental processes.
KW - Development
KW - Drosophila
KW - Histone H3 globular domain
KW - Histone post-translational modifications
KW - Imaginal discs
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U2 - 10.1186/s13072-016-0059-3
DO - 10.1186/s13072-016-0059-3
M3 - Article
C2 - 26933451
AN - SCOPUS:84962753861
SN - 1756-8935
VL - 9
JO - Epigenetics and Chromatin
JF - Epigenetics and Chromatin
IS - 1
M1 - 9
ER -