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Histone lactylation links metabolism and gene regulation

Cells regulate gene expression in part through the chemical labelling of histone proteins. Discovery of a label derived from lactate molecules reveals a way in which cells link gene expression to nutrient metabolism.
  1. Luke T. Izzo

    1. Luke T. Izzo is in the Department of Cancer Biology and Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

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  2. Kathryn E. Wellen

    1. Kathryn E. Wellen is in the Department of Cancer Biology and Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

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Cellular metabolism involves the uptake, release and biochemical interconversion of nutrients to produce energy and synthesize complex molecules. The intermediates and end products of metabolism also have essential signalling functions, modulating cell signalling and gene expression in accordance with nutritional resources1,2. One way in which these metabolites signal is through the chemical modification of proteins such as histones. Writing in Nature, Zhang and colleagues3 describe their discovery of a previously unknown histone modification, lactylation, derived from the cellular metabolite lactate.

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Nature 574, 492-493 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03122-1

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