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    Nat Cell Biol. 2007 May;9(5):596-603. Epub 2007 Apr 15.

    N-terminal alpha-methylation of RCC1 is necessary for stable chromatin association and normal mitosis.

    Source

    Department of Microbiology, Center for Cell Signaling, University of Virginia School of Medicine University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22908-0577, USA.

    Abstract

    Regulator of chromatin condensation 1 (RCC1) is the only known guanine nucleotide-exchange factor for the Ran GTPase and has pivotal roles in nucleo-cytoplasmic transport, mitosis, and nuclear-envelope assembly. RCC1 associates dynamically with chromatin through binding to histones H2A and/or H2B in a Ran-regulated manner. Here, we report that, unexpectedly, the amino-terminal serine or proline residue of RCC1 is uniquely methylated on its alpha-amino group. Methylation requires removal of the initiating methionine, and the presence of proline and lysine at positions 3 and 4, respectively. Methylation-defective mutants of RCC1 bind less effectively than wild-type protein to chromatin during mitosis, which causes spindle-pole defects. We propose a bimodal attachment mechanism for RCC1 in which the tail promotes stable RCC1 association with chromatin through DNA binding in an alpha-N-methylation-dependent manner. These data provide the first known function for N-terminal protein methylation.

    PMID:
    17435751
    [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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