PR domain zinc finger protein 6; histone-lysine N-methyltransferase PRDM6; PR domain-containing protein 6 (PRDM6, PFM3)

Function

• putative histone methyltransferase
• acts as a transcriptional repressor of smooth muscle gene expression
• promotes transition from differentiated to proliferative smooth muscle by suppressing differentiation & maintaining the proliferative potential of vascular smooth muscle cells
• also plays a role in endothelial cells by inhibiting endothelial cell proliferation, survival & differentiation
• unclear whether it has histone methyltransferase activity in vivo
• according to some authors, it does not act as a histone methyltransferase by itself & represses transcription by recruiting EHMT2/G9a
• according to others, it possesses histone methyltransferase activity when associated with other proteins & specifically methylates Lys-20 of histone H4 in vitro
• Lys-20 methylation represents a specific tag for epigenetic transcriptional repression (putative)
• interacts with HDAC1, HDAC2, HDAC3, CBX1 & EP300

S-adenosyl-L-methionine + L-lysine-[[[A137031|histone]]] = S-adenosyl-L-homocysteine + N(6)-methyl-L-lysine-[[[A137031|histone]]]

Structure

• contains 4 C2H2-type Zn+2 fingers
• contains 1 SET domain

Compartment

nucleus (putative)

Alternative splicing

named isoforms=3

More general terms

• histone N-methyltransferase
• C2H2 type zinc finger protein

Database

• Entrez gene: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=gene&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=Graphics&list_uids=93166
• Kegg: http://www.genome.jp/dbget-bin/www_bget?hsa:93166
• UniProt: http://www.uniprot.org/uniprot/Q9NQX0.html