Histone-modifying enzymes

Histone-modifying enzymes are enzymes involved in the modification of histone substrates after protein translation and affect cellular processes including gene expression. To safely store the eukaryotic genome, DNA is wrapped around four core histone proteins (H3, H4, H2A, H2B), which then join to form nucleosomes. These nucleosomes further fold together into highly condensed chromatin, which renders the organism's genetic material far less accessible to the factors required for gene transcription, DNA replication, recombination and repair. Subsequently, eukaryotic organisms have developed intricate mechanisms to overcome this repressive barrier imposed by the chromatin through histone modification, a type of post-translational modification which typically involves covalently attaching certain groups to histone residues. Once added to the histone, these groups (directly or indirectly) elicit either a loose and open histone conformation, euchromatin, or a tight and closed histone conformation, heterochromatin. Euchromatin marks active transcription and gene expression, as the light packing of histones in this way allows entry for proteins involved in the transcription process. As such, the tightly packed heterochromatin marks the absence of current gene expression.

While there exist several distinct post-translational modifications for histones, the four most common histone modifications include acetylation, methylation, phosphorylation and ubiquitination. Histone-modifying enzymes that induce a modification (e.g., add a functional group) are dubbed writers, while enzymes that revert modifications are dubbed erasers. Furthermore, there are many uncommon histone modifications including O-GlcNAcylation, sumoylation, ADP-ribosylation, citrullination and proline isomerization. For a detailed example of histone modifications in transcription regulation see RNA polymerase control by chromatin structure and table "Examples of histone modifications in transcriptional regulation".

The four common histone modifications and their respective writer and eraser enzymes are shown in the table below.

Histone acetylation, or the addition of an acetyl group to histones, is facilitated by histone acetyltransferases (HATs) which target lysine (K) residues on the N-terminal histone tail. Histone deacetylases (HDACs) facilitate the removal of such groups. The positive charge on a histone is always neutralized upon acetylation, creating euchromatin which increases transcription and expression of the target gene. Lysine residues 9, 14, 18, and 23 of core histone H3 and residues 5, 8, 12, and 16 of H4 are all targeted for acetylation.

Histone methylation involves adding methyl groups to histones, primarily on lysine (K) or arginine (R) residues. The addition and removal of methyl groups is carried out by histone methyltransferases (HMTs) and histone demethylases (KDMs) respectively. Histone methylation is responsible for either activation or repression of genes, depending on the target site, and plays an important role in development and learning.

Histone phosphorylation occurs when a phosphoryl group is added to a histone. Protein kinases (PTKs) catalyze the phosphorylation of histones and protein phosphatases (PPs) catalyze the dephosphorylation of histones. Much like histone acetylation, histone phosphorylation neutralizes the positive charge on histones which induces euchromatin and increases gene expression.^{[citation needed]} Histone phosphorylation occurs on serine (S), threonine (T) and tyrosine (Y) amino-acid residues mainly in the N-terminal histone tails.^{[citation needed]}

Additionally, the phosphorylation of histones has been found to play a role in DNA repair and chromatin condensation during cell division. One such example is the phosphorylation of S139 on H2AX histones, which is needed to repair double-stranded breaks in the DNA.

Ubiquitination is a post-translational modification involving the addition of ubiquitin proteins onto target proteins. Histones are often ubiquitinated with one ubiquitin molecule (monoubiquitination), but can also be modified with ubiquitin chains (polyubiquitination), both of which can have variable effects on gene transcription. Ubiquitin ligases add these ubiquitin proteins while deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs) remove these groups. Ubiquitination of the H2A core histone typically represses gene expression as it prevents methylation at H3K4, while H2B ubiquitination is necessary for H3K4 methylation and can lead to both gene activation or repression.^{[citation needed]} Additionally, histone ubiquitination is related to genomic maintenance, as ubiquitination of histone H2AX is involved in DNA damage recognition of DNA double-strand breaks.