Group Cardiovascular Genetics, Department Vertebrate Genomics, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin 14195, Germany.
Chromatin remodeling and histone modifications facilitate access of transcription factors to DNA by promoting the unwinding and destabilization of histone-DNA interactions. We present DPF3, a new epigenetic key factor for heart and muscle development characterized by a double PHD finger. DPF3 is associated with the BAF chromatin remodeling complex and binds methylated and acetylated lysine residues of histone 3 and 4. Thus, DPF3 may represent the first plant homeodomains that bind acetylated lysines, a feature previously only shown for the bromodomain. During development Dpf3 is expressed in the heart and somites of mouse, chicken, and zebrafish. Morpholino knockdown of dpf3 in zebrafish leads to incomplete cardiac looping and severely reduced ventricular contractility, with disassembled muscular fibers caused by transcriptional deregulation of structural and regulatory proteins. Promoter analysis identified Dpf3 as a novel downstream target of Mef2a. Taken together, DPF3 adds a further layer of complexity to the BAF complex by representing a tissue-specific anchor between histone acetylations as well as methylations and chromatin remodeling. Furthermore, this shows that plant homeodomain proteins play a yet unexplored role in recruiting chromatin remodeling complexes to acetylated histones.