Functional Studies for Histone modifications - (Feb/03/2009 )

If I want to prove a causal relationship between histone H3K4me3 and a biological process, maybe the shraightforward reasoning would be to alter H3K4me3, and see if there's a resulting phenotype.

For example, if I'm doing DNA methylation, I can use something like 5-Aza

But is there a simple inhibitor for H3K4me3?

Or what better approach should I take (if possible)?

Please advice, thank!!

Can you use RNAi to knock down the enzmye that is responsible for adding or removing H3K4me3. I know that recently several histone demethylases have been identified mostly by Yi Zhang's group.

pcrman on Feb 3 2009, 10:54 PM said:

Thanks,

I guess a conceptual question is that if a gene is highly H3K4 trimethylated, if I use siRNA of histone methylase (I looked and found Wdr5, Rbbp5 and Ash2l) to knockdown the methylase, will H3K4me3 decrease?

I mean, is decrease of methylase enough?
Or whatever is methylated will stay there?
Is overexpression of demethylase (such as Jarid1c) necessary?