Genome-wide analysis of whole transcriptome in E(z) temperature sensitive cells [RNA-Seq]

PcG protein complex PRC2 is a methyltransferase specific for histone H3 lysine27, and H3K27me3 is essential for stable transcription silencing. Less well known but quantitatively much more important is the genome-wide role of PRC2 that dimethylates ~70% of total H3K27. Here we show that H3K27me2 occurs in inverse proportion to transcriptional activity in genes and intergenic regions and its loss results in global transcriptional derepression proportionally greatest in previously silent or weakly transcribed regions. H3K27me2 levels are controlled by opposing roaming activities of PRC2 and the H3K27 demethylase dUTX. Unexpectedly, we find an equally pervasive distribution of histone H2A ubiquitylated at lysine 118 (H2AK118ub), attributed to the RING1 subunit of PRC1-type complexes. Overall design: Examination of global changes in transcription genome-wide when E(z) is inactivated by monitoring total RNA from E(z) temperature-sensitive cells at 25°C and 31°C in duplicate

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Lee HG, Kahn TG, Simcox A, Schwartz YB, Pirrotta V