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 tri-methylation is widespread histone modification and associated with transcriptionally active genes.Increased H3-K79 trimethylation is also found to be involved in some pathological processes such as leukemogenesis in human. The H3-K79 tri-methylation can be also changed by inhibiton or activation of HMTs. Thus quantitative detection of tri-methyl histone H3-K79 would provide useful information for better understanding epigenetic regulation of gene activation and for developing HMT targeted drugs. The Tri-Methyl Histone H3-K79 Quantification Kit (Colorimetric) provides a tool for measuring tr-methylation of histone H3- K79