Role of type II protein arginine methyltransferase 5 in the regulation of Circadian Per1 gene

PLoS One. 2012;7(10):e48152. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0048152. Epub 2012 Oct 25.

Abstract

Circadian clocks are the endogenous oscillators that regulate rhythmic physiological and behavioral changes to correspond to daily light-dark cycles. Molecular dissections have revealed that transcriptional feedback loops of the circadian clock genes drive the molecular oscillation, in which PER/CRY complexes inhibit the transcriptional activity of the CLOCK/BMAL1 heterodimer to constitute a negative feedback loop. In this study, we identified the type II protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) as an interacting molecule of CRY1. Although the Prmt5 gene was constitutively expressed, increased interaction of PRMT5 with CRY1 was observed when the Per1 gene was repressed both in synchronized mouse liver and NIH3T3 cells. Moreover, rhythmic recruitment of PRMT5 and CRY1 to the Per1 gene promoter was found to be associated with an increased level of histone H4R3 dimethylation and Per1 gene repression. Consistently, decreased histone H4R3 dimethylation and altered rhythmic Per1 gene expression were observed in Prmt5-depleted cells. Taken together, these findings provide an insight into the link between histone arginine methylation by PRMT5 and transcriptional regulation of the circadian Per1 gene.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antibody Specificity
  • Arginine / chemistry
  • Cryptochromes / biosynthesis*
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic*
  • HEK293 Cells
  • Histones / chemistry
  • Histones / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Methylation
  • Mice
  • Models, Genetic
  • NIH 3T3 Cells
  • Period Circadian Proteins / biosynthesis*
  • Promoter Regions, Genetic
  • Protein Methyltransferases / physiology*
  • Protein-Arginine N-Methyltransferases / physiology*
  • Transcription, Genetic

Substances

  • CRY1 protein, human
  • Cry1 protein, mouse
  • Cryptochromes
  • Histones
  • PER1 protein, human
  • Per1 protein, mouse
  • Period Circadian Proteins
  • Arginine
  • Protein Methyltransferases
  • PRMT5 protein, human
  • Prmt5 protein, mouse
  • Protein-Arginine N-Methyltransferases

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Brain Research Center of the 21st Century Frontier Research Program (2010K000824 to B.J.) and Basic Science Research Program (20110000930 to B.J.) through the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the Republic of Korea. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.