Histone acetylation ranks with DNA methylation as one of major epigenetic modifications in eukaryotes. Deacetylation of histone N-terminal tails is intimately correlated with gene silencing and heterochromatin formation. In Arabidopsis, histone deacetylase 6 (HDA6) is a well-studied histone deacetylase that functions in gene silencing. Recently, it has been reported that HDA6 cooperates with DN...

Rates of histone acetylation and deacetylation in nuclei from fetal, adult, and two kinds of neoplastic rat hepatocytes were examined. Histone acetylation in isolated nuclei was measured in the presence of 6 mM sodium n-butyrate, a potent inhibitor of deacetylase, and in the absence of the inhibitor. The deacetylase activity was estimated from the difference between the rates with or without th...

FK228 is a histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, the molecular mechanism of inhibition of which has been unknown. Here we show that reduction of an intramolecular disulfide bond of FK228 greatly enhanced its inhibitory activity and that the disulfide bond was rapidly reduced in cells by cellular reducing activity involving glutathione. Computer modeling suggests that one of the sulfhydryl group...

Evidence indicates that broad, nonspecific histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibition enhances learning and memory, however, the contribution of the various HDACs to specific forms of learning is incompletely understood. Here, we show that the Class I HDAC inhibitor, RGFP963, enhances consolidation of cued fear extinction. However, RGFP966, a strong inhibitor of HDAC3, does not significantly enhance...

Histone deacetylase (HDAC) 8 is a zinc ion dependent enzyme involved in removing the acetyl group from the core histones and other proteins which belong to Class I HDACs. It was reported that nitric oxide (NO) is a key regulator of HDAC function and S-nitrosylation of HDAC2 induces chromatin remodelling in neurons. This work reports the successful recombinant expression of human HDAC8 in Escher...

Accumulative evidence suggests that more than 20 neuron-specific genes are regulated by a transcriptional cis-regulatory element known as the neural restrictive silencer (NRS). A trans-acting repressor that binds the NRS, NRSF [also designated RE1-silencing transcription factor (REST)] has been cloned, but the mechanism by which it represses transcription is unknown. Here we show evidence that ...

Nucleosome remodeling and covalent modifications of histones play fundamental roles in chromatin structure and function. However, much remains to be learned about how the action of ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling factors and histone-modifying enzymes is coordinated to modulate chromatin organization and transcription. The evolutionarily conserved ATP-dependent chromatin-remodeling factor ISW...

Position-effect control at the silent mat2-mat3 interval and at centromeres and telomeres in fission yeast is suggested to be mediated through the assembly of heterochromatin-like structures. Therefore, trans-acting genes that affect silencing may encode either chromatin proteins, factors that modify them, or factors that affect chromatin assembly. Here, we report the identification of an essen...