Review

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 6, 838-849 (November 2005) | doi:10.1038/nrm1761

The diverse functions of histone lysine methylation

Cyrus Martin1 & Yi Zhang1  About the authors

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Covalent modifications of histone tails have fundamental roles in chromatin structure and function. One such modification, lysine methylation, has important functions in many biological processes that include heterochromatin formation, X-chromosome inactivation and transcriptional regulation. Here, we summarize recent advances in our understanding of how lysine methylation functions in these diverse biological processes, and raise questions that need to be addressed in the future.

Author affiliations

  1. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-7295, USA.

Correspondence to: Yi Zhang1 Email: yi_zhang@med.unc.edu

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