Abstract

Covalent modifications of histones are central to the regulation of chromatin dynamics, and, therefore, many biological processes involving chromatin, such as replication, repair, transcription and genome stability, are regulated by chromatin and its modifications. In this review, we discuss the biochemical, molecular and genetic properties of the enzymatic machinery involved in four different types of histone modification: acetylation, ubiquitination, phosphorylation and methylation. We also discuss how perturbation of the activity of this enzymatic machinery can cause developmental defects and disease.

1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Carbondale, Illinois 62901, USA;
2. Stowers Institute for Medical Research, 1000 East 50th Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64110, USA.

Correspondence to: Ali Shilatifard² e-mail: ash@stowers-institute.org.

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