New publication in "Nucleic Acids Research"
In this new publication in Nucleic Acids Research, we show with biochemical and cellular assays that binding of the 3TD domain of the H3K9 methyltransferase SETDB1 to the H3K9me1/2/3-K14ac double modification plays an important role in chromatin targeting of SETDB1. Genomic analyses showed that H3K9me1/2/3-K14ac binding to 3TD directs the genome-wide H3K9me3 patterns introduced by SETDB1. This reveals a novel pathway of introduction of the very important H3K9me3 silencing mark, that is essential for the repression of repeat elements. Moreover, our data illustrate that H3K14ac is a special type of histone acetylation, because it directs SETDB1 activity and leads to genome-wide deposition of the H3K9me3 silencing mark.