While histone post-translational modifications are conserved across eukaryotes (see rdcu.be/eeaLN from @xgrau.bsky.social and @crisnava.bsky.social in our lab), we don’t know if they all play the same functional role. The first step is knowing where along the genome the modifications are found. 2/n - ThreadSky

seanamontgomery.bsky.social • 92 days ago

While histone post-translational modifications are conserved across eukaryotes (see https://rdcu.be/eeaLN from @xgrau.bsky.social and @crisnava.bsky.social in our lab), we don’t know if they all play the same functional role. The first step is knowing where along the genome the modifications are found. 2/n

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seanamontgomery.bsky.social•92 days ago

To this end, iChIP2 was developed to generate the breadth of data needed to gain insights from all major eukaryotic lineages (see thread by @crisnava.bsky.social). She put in an immense effort generating all of the data, and even more optimizing the method and testing antibodies! 3/n

seanamontgomery.bsky.social•92 days ago

My lucky role was to play with the vast wealth of data! To start, we defined 19 metastates, similar ChromHMM chromatin states that represented distinct combinations of chromatin marks. We believe this can serve as a useful framework to directly compare chromatin landscapes across species. 4/n

seanamontgomery.bsky.social•92 days ago

In line with previous observations, histone modifications associated with active genes are conserved, though some some interesting exceptions exist, specifically regarding broad histone acetylation domains and H3K79 methylation. 5/n

seanamontgomery.bsky.social•92 days ago

Histone acetylation associated with genes is typically restricted to active gene TSSs, but in three distantly related species, an ichthyosporean, a chytrid fungus, and a flowering plant, we saw elevated levels of histone acetylation along the length of inactive or lowly expressed genes. 6/n

seanamontgomery.bsky.social•92 days ago

H3K79 methylation is written by a single enzyme, DOT1, and is associated with active gene bodies in fungi and animals. Surprisingly, while we saw dimethylation positively correlated with gene expression in the amoebazoan A. castellanii, trimethylation was negatively correlated! 7/n

seanamontgomery.bsky.social•92 days ago

(Here I went down a bit of a literature rabbit hole trying to understand how this could happen, but thanks to some great work in the trypanosome T. brucei, we hypothesize that the sub- and neofunctionalization of Dot1 homologs may be the key!) 7.5/n

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