Methylation of histone H3K23 blocks DNA damage in pericentric heterochromatin during meiosis

Romeo Papazyan, Ekaterina Voronina, Jessica R. Chapman, Teresa R. Luperchio, Tonya M. Gilbert, Elizabeth Meier, Samuel G. Mackintosh, Jeffrey Shabanowitz, Alan J. Tackett, Karen L. Reddy, Robert S. Coyne, Donald F. Hunt, Yifan Liu, Sean D. Taverna

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

36 Scopus citations

Abstract

Despite the well-established role of heterochromatin in protecting chromosomal integrity during meiosis and mitosis, the contribution and extent of heterochromatic histone posttranslational modifcations (PTMs) remain poorly defned. Here, we gained novel functional insight about heterochromatic PTMs by analyzing histone H3 purifed from the heterochromatic germline micronucleus of the model organism Tetrahymena thermophila. Mass spectrometric sequencing of micronuclear H3 identifed H3K23 trimethylation (H3K23me3), a previously uncharacterized PTM. H3K23me3 became particularly enriched during meiotic leptotene and zygotene in germline chromatin of Tetrahymena and C. elegans. Loss of H3K23me3 in Tetrahymena through deletion of the methyltransferase Ezl3p caused mislocalization of meiosis-induced DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) to heterochromatin, and a decrease in progeny viability. These results show that an evolutionarily conserved developmental pathway regulates H3K23me3 during meiosis, and our studies in Tetrahymena suggest this pathway may function to protect heterochromatin from DSBs.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numbere02996
JournaleLife
Volume2014
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 26 2014

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Neuroscience
  • General Immunology and Microbiology
  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

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