Description
Lysine histone methylation is one of the most robust epigenetic marks and is essential for the regulation of multiple cellular processes. The methylation of H3-K4 seems to be of particular significance, as it is associated with active regions of the genome. H3-K4 methylation was considered irreversible until the identification of a large number of histone demethylases indicated that demethylation events play an important role in histone modification dynamics. So far at least 2 classes of H3-K4 specific histone demethylase, LSD1 (BHC110, KDM1) and JARIDs have been identified. The JARID family, except JARID2 (JARID1A, JARID1B, JARID1C and JARID1D), can remove tri-methylation from H3-K4. JARID demethylases are Jumonji-domain proteins and catalyze the removal of methylation by using a hydroxylation reaction with a requirement of iron and a-ketoglutarate as cofactors