| Type: | Family | Name: | Histone H4-K20 methyltransferase |
| Description: | This is a family of histone methyltransferase that specifically monomethylates 'Lys-20' of histone H4. H4 'Lys-20' monomethylation is enriched during mitosis and represents a specific tag for epigenetic transcriptional repression. This enzyme mainly functions in euchromatin regions, thereby playing a central role in the silencing of euchromatic genes. It is required for cell proliferation, possibly by contributing to the maintenance of proper higher order structure of DNA and chromosome condensation during mitosis [, , , , , , , , , , ]. It has been shown that this enzyme interacts with L3MBTL1 in humans []. This family is also known as SETD8 and PR-SET7 [].Methyltransferases (EC 2.1.1.-) constitute an important class of enzymes present in every life form. They transfer a methyl group most frequently from S-adenosyl L-methionine (SAM or AdoMet) to a nucleophilic acceptor such as oxygen leading to S-adenosyl-L-homocysteine (AdoHcy) and a methylated molecule [, , ]. All these enzymes have in common a conserved region of about 130 amino acid residues that allow them to bind SAM []. The substrates that are methylated by these enzymes cover virtually every kind of biomolecules ranging from small molecules, to lipids, proteins and nucleic acids [, , ]. Methyltransferase are therefore involved in many essential cellular processes including biosynthesis, signal transduction, protein repair, chromatin regulation and gene silencing [, , ]. More than 230 families of methyltransferases have been described so far, of which more than 220 use SAM as the methyl donor. | Short Name: | Hist_H4-K20_MeTrfase |
