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. ESET, G9a, SUV39-h1, SUV39- h2, SETDB1, Dim-5 and Eu-HMTase are histone methyltransferases that catalyze methylation of histone H3 at lysine 9 (H3-K9) in mammalian cells. H3-K9 trimethylation mediates heterochromatin formation by forming a binding site for HP and is a stable heterochromatin mark which promotes gene silencing. Increased H3-K9 tri-methylation is also found to be involved in some pathological processes such as cancer progression. The H3-K9 tri-methylation can be also changed by inhibiton or activation of HMTs. Thus quantitative detection of tri-methyl histone H3-K9 would provide useful information for better understanding epigenetic regulation of gene activation/silencing and for developing HMT-targeted drugs. The Tri-Methyl Histone H3-K9 Quantification Kit (Colorimetric) provides a tool for measuring tri-methylation of histone H3-K9