Set2-mediated H3K36 methylation states redundantly repress the production of antisense transcripts: role in transcription regulation

Methyltransferase Set2-mediated methylation of histone H3 lysine 36 (H3K36), which involves the addition of up to three methyl groups at this site, has been demonstrated to function in many chromatin-coupled events. The methylation of H3K36 is known to recruit different chromatin effector proteins, affecting transcription, mRNA splicing and DNA repair. In this study, we engineered two yeast set2 mutants that lack H3K36 mono/dimethylation (H3K36me1/2) and trimethylation (H3K36me3), respectively, and characterized their roles in the production of antisense transcripts under nutrient-rich conditions. Using our new bioinformatics identification pipeline analysis, we are able to identify a larger number of antisense transcripts in set2 increment cells than has been published previously. We further show that H3K36me1/2 or H3K36me3 redundantly repressed the production of antisense transcripts. Moreover, gene ontology (GO) analysis implies that H3K36me3-mediated antisense transcription might play a role in DNA replication and DNA damage repair, which is independent of regulation of the corresponding sense gene expression. Overall, our results validate a coregulatory mechanism of different H3K36 methylation states, particularly in the repression of antisense transcription.