Abstract
Cells employ elaborate mechanisms to introduce structural and chemical
variation into chromatin. Here, we focus on one such element of variation:
methylation of lysine 4 in histone H3 (H3K4). We assess a growing
body of literature, including treatment of how the mark is established,
the patterns of methylation, and the functional consequences of this
epigenetic signature. We discuss structural aspects of the H3K4 methyl
recognition by the downstream effectors and propose a distinction
between sequence-specific recruitment mechanisms and stabilization
on chromatin through methyl-lysine recognition. Finally, we hypothesize
how the unique properties of the polyvalent chromatin fiber and associated
effectors may amplify small differences in methyl-lysine recognition,
simultaneously allowing for a dynamic chromatin architecture.
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