Protein lysine methyltransferases (PKMTs) play essential roles in gene expression regulation and cancer development. Somatic mutations in PKMTs are frequently observed in cancer cells. In biochemical experiments, we show here that the NSD1 mutations Y1971C, R2017Q, and R2017L observed mostly in solid cancers are catalytically inactive suggesting that NSD1 acts as a tumor suppressor gene in these tumors. In contrast, the frequently observed T1150A in NSD2 and its T2029A counterpart in NSD1, both observed in leukemia, are hyperactive and introduce up to three methyl groups in H3K36 in biochemical and cellular assays, while wildtype NSD2 and NSD1 only introduce up to two methyl groups. In Molecular Dynamics simulations, we determined key mechanistic and structural features controlling the product specificity of this class of enzymes. Simulations with NSD2 revealed that H3K36me3 formation is possible due to an enlarged active site pocket of T1150A and loss of direct contacts of T1150 to critical residues which regulate the product specificity of NSD2. Bioinformatic analyses of published data suggested that the generation of H3K36me3 by NSD2 T1150A could alter gene regulation by antagonizing H3K27me3 finally leading to the upregulation of oncogenes.
Keywords: H3K36me3; MD simulation; NSD1; NSD2; histone methylation; product specificity; protein lysine methyltransferase; somatic cancer mutants.
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