Petruk et al. studied how the histone marks H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 are inherited to daughter chromosomes during DNA replication in Drosophila melanogaster embryos. Using various methods to track protein dynamics following replication fork passage, they made the surprising observation that reloaded histones are initially unmodified at these amino acids. Instead, they found that the Trithorax (TRX) and Enhancer of Zeste (E(Z)) histone methyltransferases remain stably associated with DNA during replication to re-establish the H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 patterns later. In this system at least, TRX and E(Z), rather than the histone modifications they catalyse, seem to be the bona fide epigenetic marks.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER
Petruk, S. et al. TrxG and PcG proteins but not methylated histones remain associated with DNA through replication. Cell 150, 922–933 (2012)
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Burgess, D. Chromatin inheritance during DNA replication. Nat Rev Genet 13, 675 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3342
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3342
