Page 8 - J. Chromatin remodeling and epigenetics

[J. Chromatin remodeling and epigenetics-4]

Immune regulation of mammalian polycomb repressor and

the relationship between its structural heterogeneity

Seok-Jin Kang¹, Taehoon Chun¹

¹Department of Biotechnology, Korea university, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea

Epigenetic regulation occurs by modifying the structure of chromatin. Enzymes that alter structure of DNA or
histones mainly mediate this regulation. Polycomb group (PcG) proteins that are evolutionarily well-conserved can
function as transcription repressors by the trimethylation of histone H3 at the lysine 27 residue (H3K7me3) and the

monoubiquitination of histone H2A at the lysine 119 residue (H2AK119ub). PcG proteins form two functionally

distinct protein: polycomb repressor complex 1 (PRC1) and PRC2. Mammalian PRC has structural heterogeneity
which has greatly increased by several paralogs of its subunit proteins. RNA-seq and chromatin immunoprecipitation
(CHIP)-seq analysis of transgenic mice might be helpful for defining the cell-specific functions of paralogs of PcG

proteins. This article summarizes current knowledge about the immune regulatory role of PcG proteins related to
the compositional diversity of each PRC complex and introduce therapeutic drugs that target PcG proteins in

hematopoietic malignancy. This work was supported by a grant from the Next-Generation BioGreen 21 Program
(Project No. PJ01327101), Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.