The Role of Histone Lysine Methylation in the Response of Mammalian Cells to Ionizing Radiation

Elena Di Nisio; Giuseppe Lupo; Valerio Licursi; Rodolfo Negri

doi:10.3389/fgene.2021.639602

The Role of Histone Lysine Methylation in the Response of Mammalian Cells to Ionizing Radiation

Front Genet. 2021 Mar 30:12:639602. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2021.639602. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Elena Di Nisio¹, Giuseppe Lupo¹, Valerio Licursi¹, Rodolfo Negri^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biology and Biotechnology Charles Darwin, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
² Institute of Molecular Biology and Pathology, National Research Counsil (IBPM-CNR), Rome, Italy.

Abstract

Eukaryotic genomes are wrapped around nucleosomes and organized into different levels of chromatin structure. Chromatin organization has a crucial role in regulating all cellular processes involving DNA-protein interactions, such as DNA transcription, replication, recombination and repair. Histone post-translational modifications (HPTMs) have a prominent role in chromatin regulation, acting as a sophisticated molecular code, which is interpreted by HPTM-specific effectors. Here, we review the role of histone lysine methylation changes in regulating the response to radiation-induced genotoxic damage in mammalian cells. We also discuss the role of histone methyltransferases (HMTs) and histone demethylases (HDMs) and the effects of the modulation of their expression and/or the pharmacological inhibition of their activity on the radio-sensitivity of different cell lines. Finally, we provide a bioinformatic analysis of published datasets showing how the mRNA levels of known HMTs and HDMs are modulated in different cell lines by exposure to different irradiation conditions.

Keywords: DNA damage; DNA repair; HPTMs; histone methylation; ionizing radiation.

Publication types

Review