The central role of EED in the orchestration of polycomb group complexes

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 5; no. 1; p. 3127
• Main Authors: Cao, Qi, Wang, Xiaoju, Zhao, Meng, Yang, Rendong, Malik, Rohit, Qiao, Yuanyuan, Poliakov, Anton, Yocum, Anastasia K., Li, Yong, Chen, Wei, Cao, Xuhong, Jiang, Xia, Dahiya, Arun, Harris, Clair, Feng, Felix Y., Kalantry, Sundeep, Qin, Zhaohui S., Dhanasekaran, Saravana M., Chinnaiyan, Arul M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01-01-2014; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/337/176/2016; 82/58; Animals; Antibodies; Antibodies - pharmacology; Cell Line, Tumor; Enhancer of Zeste Homolog 2 Protein; Epigenetics; Gene Knockdown Techniques; Genetic Loci; Histone Methyltransferases; Histone-Lysine N-Methyltransferase - metabolism; Histones - metabolism; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Male; Medical schools; Mice, SCID; Models, Biological; multidisciplinary; Polycomb Repressive Complex 1 - metabolism; Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 - metabolism; Polycomb-Group Proteins - metabolism; Prostate cancer; Protein Binding - drug effects; Proteins; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Stem cells; Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases - metabolism; Atlanta Georgia; Georgia; Ann Arbor Michigan; United States > US; Texas; Michigan
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms4127

Polycomb repressive complexes 1 and 2 (PRC1 and 2) play a critical role in the epigenetic regulation of transcription during cellular differentiation, stem cell pluripotency and neoplastic progression. Here we show that the polycomb group protein EED, a core component of PRC2, physically interacts with and functions as part of PRC1. Components of PRC1 and PRC2 compete for EED binding. EED functions to recruit PRC1 to H3K27me3 loci and enhances PRC1-mediated H2A ubiquitin E3 ligase activity. Taken together, we suggest an integral role for EED as an epigenetic exchange factor coordinating the activities of PRC1 and 2.
Polycomb group proteins are epigenetic gene silencers that are thought to exist in two biochemically distinct multiprotein complexes, termed PRC-1 and -2. Here, Cao
et al.
show that EED, a core component of PRC2, interacts with and functions as part of PRC1, thus coordinating the activities of both complexes.