Description
Epigenetic activation or inactivation of genes plays a critical role in many important human diseases, especially in cancer. A major mechanism for epigenetic inactivation of the genes is methylation of CpG islands in genome DNA caused by DNA methyltransferases. Histone methyltransferases (HMTs) control or regulate DNA methylation through chromatin-dependent transcription repression or activation. HMTs transfer 1-3 methyl groups from S-adenosyl-L-methionine to the lysine and arginine residues of histone proteins. Dot1 is a histone methyltransferase that catalyzes methylation of histone H3 at lysine 79 (H3-K79) in mammalian cells. H3-K79 di-methylation is a widespread histone modification and is associated with transcriptionally active genes.Increased H3-K79 dimethylation is also found to be involved in some pathological processes such as leukemogenesis in human. The H3-K79 di-methylation can be also changed by inhibiton or activation of HMTs. Thus quantitative detection of di-methyl histone H3-K79 would provide useful information for better understanding epigenetic regulation of gene activation and for developing HMT targeted drugs. The Mono-Methyl Histone H3-K79 Quantification Kit (Colorimetric) provides a tool for measuring di-methylation of histone H3-K79