Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA-
Abstract: The proteasome regulates histone lysine methylation and gene transcription, but how it does so is poorly understood- To better understand this process, we used the epistatic miniarray profile -E-MAP- approach to identify factors that genetically interact with proteasomal subunits- In addition to members of the Set1 complex that mediate histone H3 lysine 4 methylation -H3K4me-, we found that deleting members of the CCR4-NOT mRNA processing complex exhibit synthetic phenotypes when combined with proteasome mutants- Further biochemical analyses revealed physical associations between CCR4-NOT and the proteasome in vivo- Consistent with the genetic and biochemical interactions linking CCR4-NOT with proteasome and Set1-mediated methylation, we find that loss of Not4 decreases global and gene-specific H3K4 trimethylation -H3K4me3- and decreases 19S proteasome recruitment to the PMA1 gene- Similar to proteasome regulation of histone methylation, loss of CCR4-NOT members does not affect ubiquitinated H2B- Mapping of Not4 identified the RING finger domain as essential for H3K4me3, suggesting a role for ubiquitin in this process- Consistent with this idea, loss of the Not4-interacting protein Ubc4, a known ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme, decreases H3K4me3- These studies implicate CCR4-NOT in the regulation of H3K4me3 through a ubiquitin-dependent pathway that likely involves the proteasome-