The Commercial Antibodies Widely Used to Measure H3 K56 Acetylation Are Non-Specific in Human and Drosophila Cells.

Much of our understanding of the function of histone post-translational modifications in metazoans is inferred from their genomic localization and / or extrapolated from yeast studies. For example, acetylation of histone H3 lysine 56 (H3 K56Ac) is assumed to be important for transcriptional regulati...

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Main Authors: Sangita Pal, Hillary Graves, Ryosuke Ohsawa, Ting-Hsiang Huang, Pingping Wang, Laura Harmacek, Jessica Tyler
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2016-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0155409&type=printable
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author Sangita Pal
Hillary Graves
Ryosuke Ohsawa
Ting-Hsiang Huang
Pingping Wang
Laura Harmacek
Jessica Tyler
author_facet Sangita Pal
Hillary Graves
Ryosuke Ohsawa
Ting-Hsiang Huang
Pingping Wang
Laura Harmacek
Jessica Tyler
author_sort Sangita Pal
collection DOAJ
description Much of our understanding of the function of histone post-translational modifications in metazoans is inferred from their genomic localization and / or extrapolated from yeast studies. For example, acetylation of histone H3 lysine 56 (H3 K56Ac) is assumed to be important for transcriptional regulation in metazoan cells based on its occurrence at promoters and its function in yeast. Here we directly assess the function of H3 K56Ac during chromatin disassembly from gene regulatory regions during transcriptional induction in human cells by using mutations that either mimic or prevent H3 K56Ac. Although there is rapid histone H3 disassembly during induction of some estrogen receptor responsive genes, depletion of the histone chaperone ASF1A/B, which is required for H3 K56 acetylation, has no effect on chromatin disassembly at these regions. During the course of this work, we found that all the commercially available antibodies to H3 K56Ac are non-specific in human cells and in Drosophila. We used H3-YFP fusions to show that the H3 K56Q mutation can promote chromatin disassembly from regulatory regions of some estrogen responsive genes in the context of transcriptional induction. However, neither the H3 K56R nor K56Q mutation significantly altered chromatin disassembly dynamics by FRAP analysis. These results indicate that unlike the situation in yeast, human cells do not use H3 K56Ac to promote chromatin disassembly from regulatory regions or from the genome in general. Furthermore, our work highlights the need for rigorous characterization of the specificity of antibodies to histone post-translational modifications in vivo.
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spelling doaj-art-aa08cb641812493292173cfa07b145e12025-08-20T02:15:46ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032016-01-01115e015540910.1371/journal.pone.0155409The Commercial Antibodies Widely Used to Measure H3 K56 Acetylation Are Non-Specific in Human and Drosophila Cells.Sangita PalHillary GravesRyosuke OhsawaTing-Hsiang HuangPingping WangLaura HarmacekJessica TylerMuch of our understanding of the function of histone post-translational modifications in metazoans is inferred from their genomic localization and / or extrapolated from yeast studies. For example, acetylation of histone H3 lysine 56 (H3 K56Ac) is assumed to be important for transcriptional regulation in metazoan cells based on its occurrence at promoters and its function in yeast. Here we directly assess the function of H3 K56Ac during chromatin disassembly from gene regulatory regions during transcriptional induction in human cells by using mutations that either mimic or prevent H3 K56Ac. Although there is rapid histone H3 disassembly during induction of some estrogen receptor responsive genes, depletion of the histone chaperone ASF1A/B, which is required for H3 K56 acetylation, has no effect on chromatin disassembly at these regions. During the course of this work, we found that all the commercially available antibodies to H3 K56Ac are non-specific in human cells and in Drosophila. We used H3-YFP fusions to show that the H3 K56Q mutation can promote chromatin disassembly from regulatory regions of some estrogen responsive genes in the context of transcriptional induction. However, neither the H3 K56R nor K56Q mutation significantly altered chromatin disassembly dynamics by FRAP analysis. These results indicate that unlike the situation in yeast, human cells do not use H3 K56Ac to promote chromatin disassembly from regulatory regions or from the genome in general. Furthermore, our work highlights the need for rigorous characterization of the specificity of antibodies to histone post-translational modifications in vivo.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0155409&type=printable
spellingShingle Sangita Pal
Hillary Graves
Ryosuke Ohsawa
Ting-Hsiang Huang
Pingping Wang
Laura Harmacek
Jessica Tyler
The Commercial Antibodies Widely Used to Measure H3 K56 Acetylation Are Non-Specific in Human and Drosophila Cells.
PLoS ONE
title The Commercial Antibodies Widely Used to Measure H3 K56 Acetylation Are Non-Specific in Human and Drosophila Cells.
title_full The Commercial Antibodies Widely Used to Measure H3 K56 Acetylation Are Non-Specific in Human and Drosophila Cells.
title_fullStr The Commercial Antibodies Widely Used to Measure H3 K56 Acetylation Are Non-Specific in Human and Drosophila Cells.
title_full_unstemmed The Commercial Antibodies Widely Used to Measure H3 K56 Acetylation Are Non-Specific in Human and Drosophila Cells.
title_short The Commercial Antibodies Widely Used to Measure H3 K56 Acetylation Are Non-Specific in Human and Drosophila Cells.
title_sort commercial antibodies widely used to measure h3 k56 acetylation are non specific in human and drosophila cells
url https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0155409&type=printable
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