Importance of the main chain of lysine for histone lysine methyltransferase catalysis

Abstract

Histone lysine methyltransferases (KMTs) are biomedicinally important class of epigenetic enzymes that catalyse methylation of lysine residues in histones and other proteins. Enzymatic and computational studies on the simplest lysine analogues that possess a modified main chain demonstrate that the lysine's backbone contributes significantly to functional KMT binding and catalysis.