Histone methylation, alternative splicing and neuronal differentiation

KORNBLIHTT, A. R; FISZBEIN, A.

Neurogenesis

Taylor and Francis

Año: 2016 vol. 3

2326-2133

Alternative splicing, as well as chromatin structure, greatly contributes to specific transcriptionalprograms that promote neuronal differentiation. The activity of G9a, the enzyme responsible formono- and di-methylation of lysine 9 on histone H3 (H3K9me1 and H3K9me2) in mammalianeuchromatin, has been widely implicated in the differentiation of a variety of cell types and tissues.In a recent work from our group (Fiszbein et al., 2016) we have shown that alternative splicing ofG9a regulates its nuclear localization and, therefore, the efficiency of H3K9 methylation, whichpromotes neuronal differentiation. We discuss here our results in the light of a report from othergroup (Laurent et al. 2015) demonstrating a key role for the alternative splicing of the histonedemethylase LSD1 in controlling specific gene expression in neurons. All together, these resultsillustrate the importance of alternative splicing in the generation of a proper equilibrium betweenmethylation and demethylation of histones for the regulation of neuron-specific transcriptionalprograms.