New publication in "J. Biol. Chem."

New publication in "J. Biol. Chem."

The protein lysine methyltransferase SETD6 has been shown to be critically involved in the regulation of diverse developmental and pathological processes. In collaboration with the group of Prof. Dan Levy from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, we demonstrated in this paper that the E2F1 transcription factor binds to the SETD6 promoter and regulates SETD6 mRNA expression. We next discover that SETD6 mono-methylates E2F1 specifically at K117 . Finally, we show that E2F1 methylation at K117 stimulates the expression of SETD6. Taken together, our data provide evidence for a positive feedback mechanism which regulates the expression of SETD6 by E2F1 in a SETD6 methylation dependent manner. Our findings highlight the importance of protein lysine methyltransferases and lysine methylation in the regulation of gene transcription.