Investigating d-lysine stereochemistry for epigenetic methylation, demethylation and recognition

Abstract

Histone lysine methylation is regulated by N^ε-methyltransferases, demethylases, and N^ε-methyl lysine binding proteins. Thermodynamic, catalytic and computational studies were carried out to investigate the interaction of three epigenetic protein classes with synthetic histone substrates containing L- and D-lysine residues. The results reveal that out of the three classes, N^ε-methyl lysine binding proteins are superior in accepting lysines with the D-configuration.