Molecular basis underlying histone H3 lysine-arginine methylation pattern readout by Spin/Ssty repeats of Spindlin1
Su, X., Zhu, G., Ding, X., Lee, S.Y., Dou, Y., Zhu, B., Wu, W., Li, H.(2014) Genes Dev 28: 622-636
- PubMed: 24589551 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/gad.233239.113
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
4MZF, 4MZG, 4MZH - PubMed Abstract: 
Histone modification patterns and their combinatorial readout have emerged as a fundamental mechanism for epigenetic regulation. Here we characterized Spindlin1 as a histone effector that senses a cis-tail histone H3 methylation pattern involving trimethyllysine 4 (H3K4me3) and asymmetric dimethylarginine 8 (H3R8me2a) marks. Spindlin1 consists of triple tudor-like Spin/Ssty repeats. Cocrystal structure determination established concurrent recognition of H3K4me3 and H3R8me2a by Spin/Ssty repeats 2 and 1, respectively. Both H3K4me3 and H3R8me2a are recognized using an "insertion cavity" recognition mode, contributing to a methylation state-specific layer of regulation. In vivo functional studies suggest that Spindlin1 activates Wnt/β-catenin signaling downstream from protein arginine methyltransferase 2 (PRMT2) and the MLL complex, which together are capable of generating a specific H3 "K4me3-R8me2a" pattern. Mutagenesis of Spindlin1 reader pockets impairs activation of Wnt target genes. Taken together, our work connects a histone "lysine-arginine" methylation pattern readout by Spindlin1-to-Wnt signaling at the transcriptional level.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Protein Sciences, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China;