Patent Application: US-87622101-A

Abstract:
a method for identifying compounds that alter higher order chromatin dependent chromosome stability is based on determining the compounds &# 39 ; ability to modify a methyltransferase with suv39h - like methyltransferase activity . the identified compounds are useful in therapy , in particular the therapy of human cancer and for contraception .

Description:
the set domains of human suv39h1 ( aagaard et al ., 1999 ), drosophila su ( var ) 3 - 9 ( tschiersch et al ., 1994 ) and s . pombe clr4 ( ivanova et al ., 1998 ) were used as a multiple starting alignment for database similarity searches using profile ( birney et al ., 1996 ), hidden markov ( eddy , 1998 ) and position - specific iterative blast ( altschul et al ., 1997 ) methods ( representative listings are available from the set domain page of the smart www - server ( schultz et al ., 2000 ). these searches revealed significant similarities to six plant proteins ( accession numbers q43088 , 065218 , p94026 , 080013 , aac29137 and ac007576 12 ) described as putative lysine n - methyltransferases . for example , a psi - blast search with the s . pombe hypothetical protein spac3c7 . 09 as query identified these plant sequences and well - known set domain sequences within ten rounds using an e - value inclusion threshold of 0 . 001 . the same search also revealed the presence of a set domain in yhr109w , which is known to encode a cytochrome c mtase ( martzen et al ., 1999 ), within three rounds . consensus secondary structures were predicted by described algorithms ( frishman and argos , 1997 ). the hela cell lines overexpressing full - length ( myc ) 3 - suv39h1 ( aa 3 - 412 ) or ( myc ) 3 - nchromo ( aa 3 - 118 ) have been described ( aagaard et al ., 1999 ; melcher et al ., 2000 ). nuclear extracts were immunoprecipitated with anti - myc antibody beads ( aagaard et al ., 1999 ), and approximately 1 - 3 μg of matrix - bound ( myc ) 3 - tagged suv39h1 proteins were used for in vitro hmtase assays . the gst - suv1 ( 82 - 412 ) product expressed from the pgex - 2t vector ( pharmacia ) as a glutathione - s - transferase ( gst ) fusion protein has been described ( aagaard et al ., 1999 ). additional gst constructs were generated by transferring bamhi - ecori pcr amplicons into pgex - 2t , encoding in - frame fusions for suv39h1 ( 7 - 221 ), suv39h1 ( 82 - 412 ), suv39h1 ( 82 - 378 ) δc - tail , suv39h1 ( 255 - 412 ) δcys , suv39h2 ( 157 - 477 ) ( o &# 39 ; carroll et al ., 2000 ), clr4 ( 127 - 490 ) ( ivanova et al ., 1998 ), ezh2 ( 382 - 747 ) ( laible et al ., 1997 ) and hrx ( 3643 - 3969 ) ( tkachuk et al ., 1992 ). short internal deletions ( δnhscdpn 323 - 329 and δgeeltfdy 358 - 365 ) or point mutations within the - 320 hφφnhsc 326 - motif were directly engineered in the gst - suv39h1 ( 82 - 412 ) plasmid by double pcr mutagenesis . all constructs were confirmed by sequencing . recombinant proteins were expressed in 11 cultures of e . coli strain bl21 and solubilized in 10 ml ripa buffer ( 20 mm tris ph 7 . 5 , 500 mm nacl , 5 mm edta , 1 % np - 40 , 0 . 5 % sodium deoxycholate ) containing a full set of protease inhibitors ( boehringer mannheim ) and lysozyme ( 5 mg / ml ; sigma ) by freeze - thawing in liquid n2 , followed by sonication . soluble proteins were cleared by centrifugation , purified with 800 μl glutathione sepharose beads ( pharmacia ) and washed twice in ripa buffer . protein concentration was determined by coomassie staining of sds - page gels . matrix - bound fusion proteins were used immediately for in vitro hmtase assays or stored at 4 ° c . in vitro hmtase reactions were modified based on described protocols ( strah1 et al ., 1999 ) and carried out in a volume of 50 μl of methylase activity buffer ( mab : 50 mm tris ph 8 . 5 , 20 mm kcl , 10 mm mgcl 2 , 10 mm β - me , 250 mm sucrose ), containing 10 μg of free histones ( mixture of h1 , h3 , h2b , h2a and h4 ; boehringer mannheim ) as substrates and 300 nci s - adenosyl -[ methyl - 14 c ]- l - methionine ( 25 μci / ml ) ( amersham ) as methyl donor . 10 μg of matrix - bound gst - fusion proteins were routinely used to assay for hmtase activity . after incubation for 60 min . at 37 ° c ., reactions were stopped by boiling in sds loading buffer , and proteins were separated by 15 % or 18 % sds - page and visualised by coomassie staining and fluorography . hmtase assays with individual histones ( boehringer mannheim ), insulin ( sigma ) or n - terminal peptides were performed with 5 μg of substrate . the following peptides were used : wild - type n - terminus of human histone h3 ( artkqtarkstggkaprkql ) ( seq id no : 7 ) and mutant peptide which changes lysine 9 ( bold ) to leucine ; n - terminus of human cenp - a ( mgprrrsrkpeaprrrspsp ) ( seq id no : 8 ) ( sullivan et al ., 1994 ); n - terminus of rat macro - h2a ( mssrggkkkstktsrsakag ) ( seq id no : 9 ) ( pehrson and fried , 1992 ). peptide microsequencing of the in vitro methylated wild - type h3 n - terminal peptide and determination of 3 h - incorporation of individual amino acids by scintillation counting was done as described ( strah1 et al ., 1999 ). targeting of the suv39h1 and suv39h2 gene loci in embryonic stem cells partial genomic clones of the suv39h1 locus ( x chromosome ) and of the suv39h2 locus ( chromosome 2 ) ( o &# 39 ; carroll et al ., 2000 ) were used to generate short and long arms of homology , in a strategy to produce in - frame fusion proteins of the first 40 amino acids of suv39h1 or of the first 113 amino acids of suv39h2 with β - galactosidase ( lacz ) modified with a nuclear localization signal ( nls ). for targeting , a 1 . 2 kb pfu pcr amplicon and a 5 . 4 kb saci dna fragment were derived from the genomic subclone gsuv39h1 # 18 , and a 1 . 3 kb pfu pcr amplicon and a 5 . 0 kb mlui / apai dna fragment were prepared from the genomic subclone gsuv39h2 # 28 ( see fig9 a ). the pgna - derived targeting cassettes contained an rsv - neomycin ( neo ) gene for positive selection and two polyadenylation sites . the diphtheria toxin a ( dta ) gene under the control of the mci promoter was used to select against random integration and was inserted 3 ′ of the long arms of homoloy . after linearisation with noti , suv39h1 and suv39h2 targeting constructs were electroporated into feeder - dependent r1 and e14 . 1 ( 129 / sv ) embryonic stem ( es ) cells . after selection , g418 - resistant es cell colonies were screened for homologous recombination by nested pcr using primers external to the short arms of suv39h1 ( pcr1 : 5 ′- atgggggcagggttttcgggtagac , seq id no : 10 ; pcr2 : 5 ′- aaatggtatttgcaggccac - ttcttg , seq id no : 11 ) or of suv39h2 ( pcr1 : 5 ′- gaaaaggttgttctccagctc , seq id no : 12 ; pcr2 : 5 ′- ggatgggatggtgg - aatggtttttat , seq id no : 13 ) and primers within the lacz gene ( lacz - pcr1 : 5 ′- aacccgtcggattctccgtgggaac , seq id no : 14 ; lacz - pcr2 : 5 ′- ctcaggaa - gatcgcactccagcc , seq id no : 15 ). successful targeting was confirmed by southern blot analysis of pvuii - digested es cell dna with a ≈ 500 bp external suv39h1 intron probe , generated with the primers g24r ( 5 ′- gactgc - ctagtctggcactgaact , seq id no : 16 ) and g13 ( 5 ′- gatcactgcgtacatatac - actgat , seq id no : 17 ), or of hindiii - digested es cell dna with a ≈ 500 bp external suv39h2 exon / intron probe , generated with the primers plf ( 5 ′- tagactt - ctactacattaacg , seq id no : 18 ) and plr ( 5 ′- gatgtcagtggctatgaatg , seq id no : 19 ). these dna probes detect a 4 . 5 kb fragment from the wildtype suv39h1 allele and a 4 . 0 kb fragment from the targeted allele , or 11 kb and 6 . 1 kb fragments from the suv39h2 wildtype and targeted alleles ( see fig9 b ). several independently targeted es cell clones gave rise to chimaeric mice which passed the mutations through the germline . suv39h1 −/− and suv39h2 −/− mice were intercrossed to produce compound suv39h mutant mice ( e . g . suv39h1 −/−, suv39h2 +/−; null1 / het2 ), which were then mated to generate suv39h double null ( dn ) mice . all mice described in this study were maintained on a mixed genetic background of 129 / sv and c57b1 / 6j origin . genotyping of mutant mice was done by southern blot analysis as described above . protein blot analysis of nuclear extracts from mouse testes with α - suv39h1 and α - suv39h2 antibodies was performed as described previously ( o &# 39 ; carroll et al ., 2000 ). g ) generation and analysis of suv39h double null primary mouse embryonic fibroblasts ( pmefs ) pmefs were derived from day e12 . 5 suv39h double null embryos obtained after intercrossing suv39h1 −/− / suv39h2 +/− compound mutant mice . as controls , pmefs were prepared from wild - type embryos of the same genetic background . for cell cycle profiles and growth curve analysis , passage 2 pmefs were analyzed as described ( xu et al ., 1999 ). staining of pmef interphase chromatin with α - phosh3 ( hendzel et al ., 1997 ) antibodies was done in unpermeabilized cells as described ( melcher et al ., 2000 ). for the biochemical analysis , total nuclear extracts were precalibrated by ponceau staining , immuno - blotted with α - h3 ( upstate biotechnology ) and α - phosh3 ( hendzel et al ., 1997 ) antibodies and visualised by peroxidase staining using enhanced chemiluminescence ( ecl ) ( amersham ). to analyze the proliferative potential of wild - type and mutant cells , pmefs were seeded onto 10 cm 2 dishes . over the next 30 passages , 3 × 10 5 cells were continually reseeded every third day onto a new 10 cm 2 dish ( 3t3 protocol ), and their doubling rates determined . the dna profiles of passage 3 and passage 8 pmef cultures were obtained by facs of ethanol - fixed and propidium - iodide stained cells , using chicken erythrocyte nuclei ( becton dickinson ) as an internal standard . i ) bone marrow culture and facs analysis of b - cell lymphoma cells bone marrow cells from wt and suv39h dn mice were cultivated for two weeks in stempro - 34 sfm medium ( life technologies ) supplemented with il - 3 ( 10 ng / ml ), il - 6 ( 5 ng / ml ), scf ( 100 ng / ml ), flt 3 ligand ( 20 ng / ml ), gm - csf ( 1 ng / ml ) ( all from r & amp ; d systems ), 10 μm dexamethasone ( sigma ) and igf - 1 ( 40 ng / ml ) ( sigma ). cultures were grown at densities of ≈ 3 × 10 6 cells per ml , and purified from differentiated and dead cells by ficoll - paque gradient centrifugation ( pharmacia ). primary lymphoma cells were obtained from spleen and lymph nodes using a 70 μm nylon cell strainer ( becton dickinson ), and cultivated in iscove &# 39 ; s modified dulbecco &# 39 ; s medium ( imdm ) supplemented with 5 % heat - inactivated fetal calf serum , 2 mm glutamine and 1 % penicillin - streptomycin ( all gibco - brl ). single cells suspensions were grown o / n in medium additionally containing 50 μm β - mercaptoethanol and 5 % conditioned supernatant from ril - 7 producing j558l cells . the identity of the tumor cells was determined by facs analyses using antibodies ( all from pharmingen ) that detect specific cell surface markers . all tumor cells were double positive for the b - cell markers b220 - low ( ra3 - 6b2 ) and cd19 ( 1d3 ), but negative for the t - cell markers cd3 ( 145 - 2c11 ), cd4 ( rm4 - 5 ), cd8 ( 53 - 6 . 7 ), or for the granulocyte / macrophage markers gr - 1 ( rb6 - 8c5 ), mac - 1 ( m1 / 70 ) and for a marker of the eythroid lineage , ter - 119 . the majority of the b - cell lymphoma cells were also double positive for cd43 ( s7 ) and igm ( r6 - 60 . 2 ), while some clonal cultures displayed reactivity towards cd5 ( 53 - 7 . 3 ). these facs profiles characterize the suv39h - mediated tumors as being similar to chronic lymphoid leukemia in humans ( foon and gale , 1995 ). pmef and tumor cell karyotypes were analyzed on colchicine - arrested and giemsa - stained metaphase chromosome spreads . metaphase spreads of spermatogonia and spermatocytes were prepared from isolated seminiferous tubule fragments which had been hypotonically swollen with 1 % sodium citrate for 10 min . at rt and fixed o / n at 4 ° c . with carnoy &# 39 ; s solution ( 75 % methanol , 25 % acetic acid ). after incubation of seminiferous fragments in 60 % acetic acid for 2 min ., a single cell suspension was generated by repeated pipetting , transferred onto a pre - heated ( 60 ° c .) glass slide , and cells were spread by mechanical shearing with a glass hockey stick . to generate methyl - specific antibodies against the histone h3 lysine 9 position , a hexameric peptide was generated , - tark ( me ) 2 st - cys , containing a di - methylated lysine ( bachem ) and a terminal cysteine . to increase the antigenicity and immunogenicity , a ‘ branched ’ peptide that consists of four - tark ( me ) 2st -‘ fingers ’ which are linked at their c - termini via lysine residues was also synthesized . the sequence of this ‘ branched ’ peptide is [ tark ( me ) 2 st ] 4 - k 2 - k - cys . peptides were coupled to klii and rabbit polyclonal antisera were raised , indicating that the ‘ branched ’ peptide was much more immunogenic than the linear peptide . crude antisera from two positive rabbits (# 2233 and # 2236 ) were batch - absorbed against a ‘ branched ’, but unmodified control peptide , followed by affinity purification against the di - methylated ‘ branched ’ antigen that had been crosslinked to a poros ™ column ( lachner et al ., 2001 ). bound antibodies were eluted with 100 mm glycine ph 2 . 5 and neutralised with { fraction ( 1 / 10 )} vol . of 2 m hepes ph 7 . 9 . the methyl - specificity of the antibodies was confirmed on slotblots presenting unmodified or k9 - dimethylated histone h3 peptides and on protein blots containing nuclear extracts from wt or suv39h dn pmefs . the affinity - purified α - methh3 - k9 antibodies ( concentration ≈ 0 . 6 mg / ml ) can be used at a 1 : 1 , 000 dilution for protein blot analysis or at 1 : 1 , 000 to 1 : 5 , 000 dilutions for indirect immunofluorescence . passage 6 pmefs were fixed with 2 % p - fa for 10 min . on ice , washed , incubated with blocking solution ( pbs , 2 . 5 % bsa , 10 % goat serum and 0 . 1 % tween20 ) for 30 min at rt and stained o / n at 4 ° c . with the α - methh3 - k9 antibodies . after several washes with pbs containing 0 . 2 % bsa and 0 . 1 % tween20 , the primary antibodies were detected with alexa fluor488 - conjugated goat αrabbit antibodies ( molecular probes ). dna was counterstained with 4 ′, 6 ′- diamidino - 2 - phenylindole ( dapi ), and samples were embedded in vectashield ( vector laboratories ). for preparation of metaphase chromosomes , bone marrow cells or primary tumor cells were arrested by colchicine treatment ( 0 . 5 mg / ml ) ( sigma ) for 2 . 5 hrs ., followed by hypotonic swelling in 0 . 6 % kcl or rbs buffer ( 10 mm trishcl ph 7 . 4 ; 10 mm nacl ; 5 mm mgcl 2 ) for 15 min . at 37 ° c . and centrifugation for 8 min . at 2000 rpm in a cytospin ( shandon ). spreaded cells were immediately fixed with icecold 2 % p - fa in pbs for 15 min ., washed twice and stained with the ( α - methh3 - k9 antibodies as described above . testes were dissected from adult mice , fixed in bouins fluid ( 75 % saturated picric acid , 5 % glacial acetic acid , 9 . 3 % formaldehyde ) and stained with haematoxylin / eosine . staging of the seminiferous tubules was performed according to oakberg ( 1956 ) and russell et al . ( 1990 ). fish analyses with mouse major satellite dna probes were done as recently described ( scherthan et al ., 1996 ), and tunel assays were performed using the deadend apoptosis detection system ( promega ). in addition , testis cryosections ( o &# 39 ; carroll et al ., 2000 ) were also analyzed by immuno - histochemistry with α - scp , α - hp1β , α - phosh3 and α - meth h3 - k9 antibodies . chromosome spreads of spermatogenic cells were prepared according to peters et al . ( 1997a ) with some minor modifications . a single germ cell suspension was obtained in dmem medium by mechanical disruption of isolated seminiferous tubules . after serveral washes and hypotonic swelling in hypobuffer ( 30 mm trishcl ph 8 . 2 , 50 mm sucrose , 17 mm sodium citrate ) for 10 min . at rt , cells were resuspended in 100 mm sucrose , 15 mm trishcl ph 8 . 2 and spreaded on precleaned slides covered by a thin film of 1 % p - fa containing 5 mm borate ph 9 . 2 and 0 . 15 % tritonx - 100 . slides were dried slowly in a humid chamber for ≈ 2 hrs and stored at − 80 ° c . classification of meiotic sub - stages was performed according to the changing morphology of autosomes and sex chromosomes as described ( peters et al ., 1997b ). double - labelling immunofluorescence of these germ cell preparations was performed by sequential incubation with rabbit polyclonal ( α - methh3 - k9 antibodies and with goat α - rabbit alexa568 - conjugated secondary antibodies . after a brief fixation in 1 % p - fa , samples were incubated with rabbit polyclonal α - scp3 antibodies ( lammers et al ., 1995 ) that were visualized with goat α - rabbit alexa488 - conjugated secondary antibodies . in addition , co - stainings were also done with α - scp3 and α - scp1 ( offenberg et al ., 1991 ) ( see fig1 a - c ), and α - scp3 and α - hp1β , ( wreggett et al ., 1994 ), and α - scp3 and α - phosh3 ( hendzel et al ., 1997 ) antibodies . preparation and silver staining of sc complexes from spreaded germ cells ( see above ) was performed according to peters et al . ( 1997a ), and samples were analyzed on a jeol 1200 ekii transmission electron microscope . using the set domains of the su ( var ) 3 - 9 protein family as a starting alignment , significant sequence and secondary structure similarities ( see methods ) to six plant protein methyltransferases were detected . although some of these plant sequences have been classified as potential histone lysine n - methyltransferases , only one had been functionally characterised but was found to lack hmtase activity ( klein and houtz , 1995 ; zheng et al ., 1998 ). detected were amino acid and secondary structure [ β - sheet ( b ) or αhelix ( h )] similarities of the c - terminal halves of set domain sequences from human suv39h1 ( aagaard et al ., 1999 ) ( af019968 ), murine suv39h1 ( aagaard et al ., 1999 ) ( af019969 ), murine suv39h2 ( o &# 39 ; carroll et al ., 2000 ), ( af149205 ), drosophila su ( var ) 3 - 9 ( tschiersch et al ., 1994 ) ( p45975 ), a c . elegans su ( var ) 3 - 9 - like orf c15h11 . 5 ( cab02737 ), s . pombe clr4 ( ivanova et al ., 1998 ) ( o74565 ), human ezh2 ( laible et al ., 1997 ) ( q15910 ), the human trithorax homologue hrx ( tkachuk et al ., 1992 ) ( q03164 ), and mtases from p . sativum ( rubisco 1s - mt ; q43088 ) ( klein and houtz , 1995 ; zheng et al ., 1998 ) and a . thaliana ( o065218 ). the plant mtase sequences contain an insertion of approximately 100 amino acids in the middle of the set domain . to investigate whether the set domain of human suv39h1 has enzymatic activity , histones were tested as possible substrates for in vitro methylation . using hela cell lines ‘ stably ’ expressing triple myc - tagged full - length suv39h1 ( aa 3 - 412 ), the ectopic protein was enriched from nuclear extracts by immunoprecipitation with anti - myc beads ( see fig1 / 1 a , arrowhead top panel ) and probed for activity to transfer a labelled methyl group from s - adenosyl -[ methyl - 14 c ]- l - methionine to free histones according to described conditions ( strah1 et al ., 1999 ). reaction products were separated by sds - page and visualised by fluorography , indicating selective transfer of the methyl - label to h3 ( fig1 / 1 a , lower panel ). by contrast , no signals were detected with extracts from a hela cell line that expresses only the n - terminal third of suv39h1 ( aa 3 - 118 ) or with extracts from hela control cells . to confirm that the hmtase activity is an intrinsic property of suv39h1 and not mediated by a suv39h1 - associated factor , the in vitro hmtase reactions was repeated with recombinant products that were purified as gst - fusion proteins from e . coli ( see fig1 / 2 b , arrowheads top panel ). for this analysis , murine suv39h1 , which is 95 % identical to human suv39h1 ( aagaard et al ., 1999 ) was used . a purified gst - product comprising aa 82 - 412 maintained hmtase activity ( although at a reduced level as compared to transfected suv39h1 ), whereas a purified gst - product comprising aa 7 - 221 proved negative , even at higher protein concentrations ( fig1 / 2 b , lower panel ). these results suggest that the hmtase activity resides in the c - terminal set domain . in fig1 a , triple myc - tagged full - length human suv39h1 ( aa 3 - 412 ) or a c - terminally truncated suv39h1 protein ( aa 3 - 118 ) were immunoprecipitated from ‘ stably ’ transfected hela cell lines with anti - myc antibody beads and used in in vitro hmtase reactions with free histones as substrates and s - adenosyl -[ methyl - 14 c ]- l - methionine as methyl donor . the coomassie stain ( top panel ) shows purified proteins by arrowheads and free histones by dots . fluorography ( bottom panel , fig1 a ) indicates hmtase activity of ( myc ) 3 - suv1 ( 3 - 412 ). in the experiments shown in fig1 b , recombinant gst - fusion proteins encoding different domains of murine suv39h1 were used in increasing protein concentrations for in vitro hmtase reactions as described above . a ) definition of a catalytic motif in the set domain of human suv39h1 similar to the recombinant murine gst - suv39h1 ( 82 - 412 ) product , the corresponding human suv39h1 fusion protein [ gst - suv39h1 ( 82 - 412 )] is catalytically active ( see fig2 ). short internal deletions ( δnhscdpn 323 - 329 ; δnhsc and δgeeltfdy 358 - 365 ; δgeel ) were introduced into the two conserved regions of the set domain core in gst - suv39h11 ( 82 - 412 ) and , in addition , mutants that lack the c - terminal tail ( δc - tail ) or the set - associated cysteine - rich region ( δcys ) were also generated . all mutant proteins failed to demonstrate hmtase activity ( see fig2 / 1 a ). to investigate enzyme function of the set domain in more detail , point mutations were introduced into the most highly conserved motif . in vitro hmtase assays indicated that all point mutations , with the exception of one , abolished enzymatic activity . surprisingly , the latter mutation ( h320r ) resulted in an hyperactive enzyme with approximately 20 - fold increased activity . the data obtained define the 320 hφφnhsc 326 motif in the set domain as an important catalytic site . b ) specific hmtase activity of the set domain of mammalian su ( var ) 3 - 9 related proteins because the set domain is one of the most conserved protein motifs in chromatin regulators ( stassen et al ., 1995 ; jenuwein et al ., 1998 ), it was next analyzed whether su ( var ) 3 - 9 family members or other set domain proteins contain hmtase activity . gst - fusion products of the extended set domains of s . pombe clr4 ( ivanova et al ., 1998 ), human ezh2 ( laible et al ., 1997 ) and human hrx ( tkachuk et al ., 1992 ) were generated that would correspond to gst - suv39h1 ( 82 - 412 ) ( see fig2 / 2 b ). interestingly , gst - clr4 ( 127 - 490 ) displayed pronounced hmtase activity at three - to five - fold increased levels ( see fig2 / 2 c ) as compared to the recombinant suv39h1 product , consistent with clr4 carrying an arginine at the hyperactive position . by contrast , both gst - ezh2 ( 382 - 747 ) and gst - hrx ( 3643 - 3966 ) had undetectable hmtase activity towards free histones ( fig2 / 2 c ), whereas a comparable gst product generated from the recently isolated murine suv39h2 gene ( o &# 39 ; carroll et al ., 2000 ), gst - suv39h2 ( 157 - 477 ), was as active as gst - suv39h1 ( 82 - 412 ). ezh2 lacks the c - terminal cysteines , and hrx does not contain the set associated cysteine - rich region ( fig2 b ). both of these cysteine domains are present in clr4 , suv39h2 and suv39h1 . in agreement with the mutational analysis of suv39h1 , it thus appears that hmtase activity towards free histones requires the combination of the set domain with adjacent cysteine - rich regions , and is a quality found in only a restricted number of set domain containing proteins . in fig2 a , approximately 10 μg of the indicated fusion proteins encoding gst - suv1 ( 82 - 412 ) (= human suv39h1 ) and seven set domain mutants were used in in vitro hmtase reactions with free histones as outlined in fig1 . for the hyperactive h320r mutant , only 1 μg ( 10 %) of the corresponding fusion product was used . fig2 shows a diagram representing the domain structures of clr4 , suv39h2 , suv39h1 , ezh2 and hrx proteins , with the arrowheads demarcating the n - terminal fusion to gst . cysteine - rich regions are indicated by grey stippling . in fig2 c , approximately 10 μg of the indicated fusion proteins encoding s . pombe clr4 [ gst - clr4 ( 127 - 490 )], murine suv39h2 [ gst - suv2 ( 157 - 477 )], human ezh2 [ gst - ezh2 ( 382 - 747 )], human hrx [ gst - hrx ( 3643 - 3969 )] and human suv39h1 [ gst - suv1 ( 82 - 402 )] were used in in vitro hmtase reactions with free histones as outlined in fig1 . lysine 9 of the h3 n - terminus is the major site for in vitro methylation by recombinant suv39h1 the above examples indicated that the hmtase activity of mammalian su ( var ) 3 - 9 related proteins is selective for h3 under the chosen assay conditions . to examine this finding in more detail , in vitro methylation reactions were performed with individual histones , using gst - suv39h1 ( 82 - 412 ) as an enzyme . as shown in fig3 / 1 a , h3 is specifically methylated by gst - suv39h1 ( 82 - 412 ), whereas no signals are detected with h2a , h2b or h4 . a weak signal is present if h1 was used as the sole substrate ; the significance of h1 methylation remains to be determined . methylation of h3 has been shown to occur predominantly at lysine 4 in a wide range of organisms , as well as at lysine 9 in hela cells , although the responsible hmtase ( s ) have yet to be defined ( strah1 et al ., 1999 ). to investigate the site utilisation profile of suv39h1 , unmodified peptides comprising the wild - type h3 n - terminus ( aa 1 - 20 ) and a mutant k9l peptide , changing lysine 9 to leucine were tested as substrates . additionally , insulin and peptides comprising the n - termini of cenp - a ( sullivan et al ., 1994 ) and macroh2a ( pehrson and fried , 1992 ) were included . peptides were in vitro methylated by gst - suv39h1 ( 82 - 412 ), and reaction products were separated by high percentage sds - page and visualised by fluorography . these in vitro assays revealed selective methylation of the wild - type h3 peptide , whereas no signals were detected with the cenp - a or macroh2a peptides , or with insulin ( see fig3 / 2 b ). importantly , the mutated h3 ( k9l ) peptide was not a substrate , suggesting that lysine 9 of the h3 n - terminus is a preferred residue for suv39h1 - dependent hmtase activity . to more definitively determine this site preference , the wild - type h3 n - terminal peptide was in vitro methylated by gst - suv39h1 ( 82 - 412 ), using s - adenosyl -[ methyl - 3 h ]- l - methionine . the labelled peptide , purified by reverse - phase hplc , was then directly microsequenced , and 3 h - incorporation associated with each individual amino acid was analysed by scintillation counting . the results confirmed selective transfer of methyl - label to lysine 9 ( see fig3 / 2 c ), demonstrating that suv39h1 is a highly site - specific hmtase for the h3 n - terminus in vitro . in fig3 a , approximately 10 μg of murine gst - suv39h1 ( 82 - 412 ) were used in in vitro hmtase reactions with individual histones as outlined in fig1 . [ 0162 ] fig3 b shows the results of in vitro methylation assays using gst - suv39h1 ( 82 - 412 ) as enzyme and the indicated n - terminal peptides of wild - type h3 , mutated h3 ( k9l ), cenp - a , macroh2a or insulin as substrates . [ 0163 ] fig3 c shows the result of automated sequencing of the wild - type h3 n - terminal peptide ( aa 1 - 20 ) that had been methylated in vitro by recombinant gst - suv39h1 ( 82 - 412 ). displayed is the 3 h - incorporation of individual amino acids identified at each successive round of microsequencing . murine suv39h genes are encoded by 2 loci , suv39h1 and suv39h2 ( o &# 39 ; carroll et al ., 2000 ). to investigate the in vivo significance of suv39h function and suv39h - dependent h3 - k9 methylation , mouse strains deficient for both suv39h1 and suv39h2 were generated according to standard techniques . the targeting strategies are shown in fig4 as well as demonstrating the production of null alleles for both suv39h1 and suv39h2 . mutation of either gene results in viable and fertile mice as a consequence of functional redundancy between both loci . therefore , suv39h1 and suv39h2 deficient strains were intercrossed to produce suv39h double null mice . suv39h double null mice are born in sub - mendelian ratios ( see example 8b , below ), where only approximately 30 % of the expected suv39h double mutants are observed . fig4 shows a conventional targeting strategy used to inactivate the x - linked suv39h1 locus . fig4 b shows the northern blot analysis of suv39h1 from spleen ( sp ), liver ( li ), kidney ( kidney ), and brain ( br ) from wild - type and suv39h1 null mice . fig4 c shows the conventional targeting strategy used to inactivate the autosomal suv39h2 locus . ( bottom panel ) western blot analysis with α - suv39h2 antibodies on protein extracts derived from wild - type and suv39h2 null testis . in order to determine whether the embryonic phenotypes in suv39h double null mice can be attributed to mitotic defects , pmefs derived from suv39h double mice were analysed . cell cycle profiles of wild - type and suv39h double null pmefs indicated rather similar percentages of cells to be in s - and g2 / m - phases ( see fig5 a ), whereas suv39h double null pmefs display a reduced g1 - index and an increased proportion of cells with aberrant nuclear morphologies , reminiscent of division defects during mitosis . for example , suv39h double null pmefs contain approximately two - fold elevated numbers of cells with micro - and polynuclei , and are further characterised by cell subpopulations with oversized nuclei or a weak definition of heterochromatin that appears in only a few unusually condensed foci ( see fig5 b ). furthermore , suv39h double null cells also show genomic instabilities and readily become aneuploid ( see also example 9 , below ). the severity of these aneuploidies increases with higher passage numbers ( see fig6 ). the inability of suv39h double null cells to maintain a stable karyotype may underlie the suv39h embryonic phenotype . [ 0166 ] fig5 a shows the percentages of cells in various cell cycle stages of wild - type and suv39h double null pmefs . [ 0167 ] fig5 b shows representative images ( left and middle ) of aberrant mitoses in suv39h double null pmefs detected by α - tubulin ( not shown ) and dapi staining . also shown ( right image ) is a nucleus exemplifying the unusual definition of heterochromatin in a subpopulation of suv39h double null pmefs . all images were taken at a magnification of 630x . [ 0168 ] fig6 a shows the dna content profile of wild - type and suv39h double null pmefs at passage 3 . fig6 b shows the dna content profile of wild - type and suv39h double null pmefs at passage 8 . phosphorylation at serine 10 ( phosh3 ) in the n - terminal tail of h3 has been shown to be required for condensation and subsequent segregation of chromosomes ( wei et al ., 1999 ). during the cell cycle , phosh3 initiates within pericentric heterochromatin in late g2 and then progresses along the entire chromosomes during mitosis ( hendzel et al ., 1997 ). in wild - type pmefs , approximately 7 % of the cells stain positive for the characteristic , heterochromatin - associated phosh3 foci , as detected by indirect immunofluorescence with α - phosh3 antibodies ( see fig7 a , right panel ). in contrast , this number is increased by a factor of about 3 - fold in suv39h double null pmefs , with approximately 22 % of the cells containing phosh3 - positive foci ( fig7 a , left panel ), although their definition appears in many small speckles which do not always overlap with dapi - dense material . this result suggested that the overall levels of phosh3 may be enhanced in suv39h double null pmefs . therefore , the relative abundance of phosh3 in precalibrated nuclear extracts was determined with α - phosh3 - specific antibodies . this quantitation indicated a significantly higher level of phosh3 in suv39h double null cells as compared to wild - type controls ( see fig7 b ). together , the obtained data are most consistent with a model in which suv39h - mediated methylation of lysine 9 in h3 negatively regulates phosphorylation of serine 10 . [ 0170 ] fig7 a shows an interphase chromatin staining with α - phosh3 antibodies and cy3 conjugated secondary antibodies . dna was counterstained with dapi . at least 1 , 000 cells were counted to evaluate the percentage ( indicated in the figure ) of α - phosh3 positive cells . fig7 b shows a quantitative western analysis with 15 μg and 30 μg of total nuclear proteins immuno - blotted with α - h3 and α - phosh3 antibodies . murine suv39h hmtases are encoded by two loci which have been mapped to centromere - proximal positions in the x chromosome ( suv39h1 ) or in chromosome 2 ( suv39h2 ) ( o &# 39 ; carroll et al ., 2000 ). both gene loci were independently disrupted by homologous recombination in embryonic stem ( es ) cells using a conventional targeting approach that replaces parts of the evolutionarily conserved chromo domain with the bacterial lacz gene and an rsv - neomycin selecion cassette ( fig9 a ). these targeting strategies produce in - frame fusion proteins of the first 40 amino acids of suv39h1 or of the first 113 amino acids of suv39h2 with lacz , which maintain β - galactosidase activities . successfully targeted es cell clones were used to generate chimaeric mice that transmitted the mutated suv39h1 or suv39h2 alleles through the germ line ( fig9 b ). protein blot analyses of testis nuclear extracts from wild - type , suv39h1 - and suv39h2 - deficient mice with α - suv39h1 and α - suv39h2 specific antibodies ( aagaard et al ., 1999 ; o &# 39 ; carroll et al ., 2000 ) indicated the absence of the respective proteins , demonstrating that had been generated loss - of - function alleles for both genes ( fig9 c ). mice deficient for either suv39h1 or suv39h2 display normal viability and fertility , and do not exhibit apparent phenotypes , suggesting that both genes may be functionally redundant during mouse development ( o &# 39 ; carroll et al ., 2000 ). therefore , suv39h1 −/− and suv39h2 −/− mice were intercrossed to generate compound suv39h mutants that were then used to derive suv39h double null ( dn ) mice . suv39h dn mice obtained from several different intercrosses ( table i ) are born at only sub - mendelian ratios , are growth retarded ( fig9 d ) and are characterized by hypogonadism in males . for example , from a total of 197 mice , 46 mice would have been expected to be double null ( table i ), but only 15 suv39h dn mice (≈ 33 %) were born . analysis of mouse embryogenesis indicated normal development of suv39h dn fetuses until day e12 . 5 , whereas at later stages , suv39h dn fetuses are smaller and display an increased rate of resorptions and prenatal lethality . together , these results demonstrate that the suv39h genes are required for normal viability , and for pre - and postnatal development . [ 0175 ] fig9 shows the targeting and genotyping of suv39h1 - and suv39h2 - deficient mice as follows : ( a ) diagrammatic representation of the suv39h1 and suv39h2 genomic loci , the replacement vectors and the targeted alleles . exons are indicated by black boxes with numbers referring to the starting amino acid positions of the respective exons ( o &# 39 ; carroll et al ., 2000 ). also shown are the diagnostic restriction sites and the external probes used for southern blot analyses . pa indicates polyadenylation signals . ( b ) southern blot analyses of pvuii - or hindiii - digested dna isolated from offspring of suv39h1 +/− or suv39h2 +/− heterozygous intercrosses . ( c ) protein blot analyses of testis nuclear extracts from wild - type ( wt ), suv39h1 −/− ( suv1 −/−) and suv39h2 −/− ( suv2 −/−) mice with α - suv39h1 and α - suv39h2 antibodies . the size of the suv39h1 or suv39h2 proteins is indicated by arrows . ( d ) suv39h double null ( dn ) mice are growth retarded at birth and during adulthood . to examine the suv39h - dependent defects in more detail , primary mouse embryonic fibroblasts ( pmefs ) were derived from day e12 . 5 fetuses . comparative growth curves between wild - type ( wt ) and suv39h dn pmefs in a 3t3 protocol over the first 20 passages indicated that suv39h dn pmefs displayed a higher doubling rate until passage 12 ( fig1 a ). at later passages , the suv39h dn pmefs appear to have a slightly reduced proliferative potential than the immortalised wt pmefs which survived the characteristic hayflick crisis . it was shown recently ( see example 6 ) that suv39h dn pmefs contain a significant fraction of cells with aberrant nuclear morphologies , such as macro - and polynuclei , which are reminiscent of impaired mitosis and chromosome mis - segregation ( rea et al ., 2000 ). therefore the dna content of passage 3 and passage 8 wt and suv39h dn pmefs was analyzed by facs . whereas wt pmefs appear genomically stable at passage 3 , suv39h dn pmefs already contain cells with a greater than 4n dna content , as indicated by the aneuploid shoulder in the facs profile ( fig1 b , top panels ). at passage 8 , wt pmefs are largely senesced . by contrast , suv39h dn pmefs continue to proliferate , although many cells display octaploid dna contents ( fig1 b , lower panels ). to further characterize these genomic instabilities , karyotype analyses with passage 8 pmefs were performed ( fig1 c ). in particular , 45 karyotypes each for two independent wt and two suv39h dn pmef cultures were examined . as shown in fig1 d , a major fraction of the wt karyotypes are non - diploid , with chromosome numbers ranging from 25 to 82 . aneuploidies were significantly increased in suv39h dn karyoptypes and comprised chromosome numbers from 38 to 162 . notably , whereas wt pmefs contain a random array of aneuploid karyotypes , suv39h dn pmefs are largely hypo - tetraploid or hypo - octaploid . chromosomes in suv39h dn pmefs appear of normal morphology and robertsonian fusions were not observed . it was concluded that the absence of suv39h function induces genomic instabilities , primarily by impairing segregation of the entire set of chromosomes . [ 0178 ] fig1 shows the chromosomal instabilities in suv39h dn pmefs as follows : ( a ) relative doubling rates of wt and suv39h dn pmefs determined in a 3t3 protocl over the first 20 passages . ( b ) dna contents of wt and suv39h dn pmef mass cultures at passage 3 and passage 8 . ( c ) metaphase spreads showing a diploid number ( n = 40 ) of chromosomes for wt and a hyper - tretraploid number ( n = 82 ) of chromosomes for suv39h dn pmefs . ( d ) statistical karyotype analysis with two wt and two suv39h dn pmef cultures at passage 8 . for each culture , 45 metaphases were evaluated . next , suv39h mutant mice were analyzed for the incidence of tumorigenesis . because the majority of suv39h dn mice are non - viable , distinct suv39h genotypes that differ in their gene dosage for either suv39h1 or suv39h2 were examined . for example , it was expected that random x - inactivation of the x - linked suv39h1 gene could increase the tumor risk in suv39h1 +/− mice , even in the presence of a functional copy of suv39h2 which is significantly down - regulated in most adult tissues ( o &# 39 ; carroll et al ., 2000 ). indeed , examination of 98 mice which are either heterozygous ( het ) or null for the suv39h1 locus indicated an ≈ 28 % penetrance of tumor formation with an onset between 9 - 15 months of age ( table ii ). these tumors are predominantly b - cell lymphomas ( fig1 a ) that resemble by facs profiling ( see materials and methods ) slowly progressing non - hodgin lymphomas in humans ( foon and gale , 1995 ). the tumor incidence for late onset b - cell lymphomas was ≈ 33 % in the few viable suv39h dn mice ( n = 6 ). by contrast , suv39h2 +/− or suv39h2 −/− mice developed b - cell lymphomas at only ≧ 5 % penetrance ( n = 21 ), and tumor formation in control wild - type mice was not observed . primary cultures were derived from the lymph nodes of suv39h dn and of suv39h1 −/−, suv39h2 +/− ( null1 / het2 ) tumor mice , and analyzed the karyotypes of the b - cell lymphoma cells . consistent with the aneuploides described above for suv39h dn pmef mass cultures , these tumor cells were largely hyper - diploid but also comprised some hyper - tetraploid karotypes ( fig1 b ). surprisingly , a fraction of suv39h dn tumor karyotypes , examined in several independent b - cell lymphomas , is characterized by non - segregated chromosomes that remain attached through their acrocentric regions ( fig1 c ). these ‘ butterfly ’ chromosomes raise the intriguing possibility that the absence of suv39h hmtase activities could impair the quality and function of pericentric heterochromatin by increasing more persistent interactions between metaphase chromosomes . indeed , analysis of h3 - k9 methylation with a newly developed antibody ( see example 11 , below ) indicates the absence of methh3 - k9 staining at pericentric heterochromatin of tumor chromosomes derived from suv39h null1 / het2 b - cell lymphoma cells . [ 0181 ] fig1 shows the development of b - cell lymphomas in suv39h mutant mice as follows : ( a ) spleen and lymph nodes of an 11 - month old suv39h dn tumor mouse and of a wild - type control mouse . ( b ) karyotype analysis of four independent primary cultures derived from the lymph nodes of tumor - bearing suv39h dn ( null1 / null2 ) and suv39h1 −/−, suv39h +/− ( null1 / het2 ) mice . ( c ) metaphase spread from a primary suv39h dn b - cell lymphoma cell showing ‘ butterfly ’ chromosomes that remain associated through their acrocentric regions . the above karyotype analyses on pmef and tumor cells suggested a general mechanism through which segregation of the entire chromosome complement may be impaired by suv39h - dependent defects in pericentric chromatin organization . to assess directly the role of the suv39h hmtases in histone methylation and heterochromatin formation , a rabbit polyclonal antiserum was raised that specifically recognizes histone h3 when di - methylated at lysine 9 (( α - methh3 - k9 ). as shown in fig1 a , this antiserum detects a focal staining in wt pmefs that significantly overlaps with dapi - rich heterochromatin . in pmefs derived from single suv39h1 - or suv39h2 - deficient mice , ≈ 75 % of cells stain positive for heterochromatic foci with these α - methh3 - k9 antibodies . importantly , heterochromatic staining for methh3 - k9 was abolished in suv39h dn pmefs ( fig1 a , right row ). mitotic chromosome spreads from bone marrow cells were also analyzed with the α - methh3 - k9 antiserum . in wt spreads , pericentric heterochromatin was selectively visualised ( see inserts in fig1 b ), whereas only residual staining was detected in suv39h dn spreads . thus , consistent with the localization of suv39h1 at active centromeres ( aagaard et al ., 2000 ), these data demonstrate that both suv39h enzymes are the major hmtases to methylate h3 - k9 in pericentric heterochromatin of somatic cells . moreover , these results also characterize the α - methh3 - k9 antibodies as a novel cytological marker for heterochromatin and corroborate recent s . pombe studies , in which enrichment of h3 - k9 methylation at mat and cen regions was shown to be dependent upon a functional clr4 enzyme ( nakayama et al ., 2001 ). [ 0184 ] fig1 shows the suv39h - dependent h3 - k9 methylation at pericentric heterochromatin as follows : ( a ) dapi and methh3 - k9 staining on interphase chromatin of wild - type ( wt ), suv39h1 −/−, suv39h2 −/−, and suv39h dn pmefs . percentages refer to interphase nuclei displaying h3 - k9 methylation at heterochromatic foci . ( b ) dapi and methh3 - k9 staining on mitotic chromosomes prepared from in vitro cultured wt and suv39h dn bone marrow cells . the expression pattern of the suv39h genes suggests an important role during spermatogenesis ( o &# 39 ; carroll et al ., 2000 ). indeed , suv39h dn males ( n = 7 ) are infertile , do not contain mature sperm and their testis weights are 3 - 10 fold reduced as compared to that of wt males ( fig1 a ). to investigate the spermatogenic failure in more detail , histological sections were performed , demonstrating normally developed seminiferous tubules in wt testis which display the characteristic differentiation from the mitotically proliferating spermatogonia ( sg ) to meiotic spermatocytes ( sc ) and the post - meiotic haploid spermatids ( st ) ( fig1 a ). by contrast , spermatogenesis was severely impaired in suv39h dn mice , with an apparent differentiation arrest at the transition between early to late spermatocytes , resulting in highly vacuolarized seminiferous tubules ( fig1 a ). fish analyses with mouse major satellite dna probes and tunel assays were used to characterize the suv39h - dependent spermatogenic defects further . whereas mitotic proliferation of spermatogonia appeared normal , a 3 to 10 fold increase in the percentage of pre - leptotene spermatocytes was observed . these pre - leptotene spermatocytes often were enlarged . these results suggest that the entry into meiotic prophase is delayed in the absence of suv39h function . despite this delay , further progression through meiotic prophase until mid - pachytene appeared normal . between mid - to late pachytene , however , most spermatocytes undergo apoptosis , resulting in stage v - vi tubules ( see fig1 a ) that largely lack late pachytene spermatocytes and which do not contain haploid spermatids . it was concluded that the absence of suv39h gene function induces delayed entry into meiotic prophase and triggers pronounced apoptosis of spermatocytes during the mid - to late pachytene stage . to investigate whether the suv39h - dependent spermatogenic failure could be correlated with a distinct impairment of meiotic heterochromatin , testis spread preparations and cryosections were analyzed with the α - methh3 - k9 antibodies . in wt preparations , the ( α - methh3 - k9 antibodies decorate heterochromatic foci in spermatogonia ( b - sg ) and in pre - leptotene spermatocytes ( prel - sc ) ( fig1 b , left images , top panel ). in early meiotic prophase ( zyg - sc ) and early pachytene , the α - methh3 - k9 staining was not exclusive for heterochromatin but also extended into euchromatin . from mid - pachytene through diplotene and in diakinesis , the α - methh3 - k9 staining was restricted to heterochromatic clusters which condense into one block of heterochromatin in elongating spermatids ( fig1 b , top panels ). methh3 - k9 signals in elongated spermatids and mature spermatozoa , in which histones are replaced by protamines , were not detect . the authenticity of this staining pattern had been confirmed in co - localisation analyses with antibodies that recognize the synaptonemal complex ( offenberg et al ., 1991 ; lammers et al ., 1995 ), hp1β ( motzkus et al ., 1999 ) and phosh3 ( cobb et al ., 1999 ). thus , in analogy to the somatic stainings shown above for pmefs , these results indicate that methylation of h3 - k9 is also a specific marker for meiotic heterochromatin in differentiating male germ cells . in preparations from suv39h dn testis spreads , h3 - k9 methylation was absent in spermatogonia and pre - leptotene spermatocytes ( fig1 b , left images , bottom panel ). further , the pronounced euchromatic staining that characterizes early spermatocytes ( zyg - sc ) at the onset of meiotic prophase was not observed . the impairment of h3 - k9 methylation was accompanied by a dispersed distribution of phosh3 in ≈ 60 % of suv39h dn spermatogonia . by contrast , hp1β was largely undetectable in both wt and suv39h dn spermatogonia . surprisingly , from mid - pachytene onwards , wild - type staining for methh3 - k9 at pericentric heterochromatin was observed ( fig1 b , bottom panel ). hp1β localisation and phosh3 signals at autosomes ocurred normally in suv39h dn late spermatocytes . thus , these results demonstrate that the suv39h hmtases selectively regulate h3 - k9 methylation in spermatogonia and at the very early stages of meiotic prophase . similar to the analysis with pmefs ( see above ), an ≈ 5 - fold increased rate for complete chromosome mis - segregation in suv39h dn spermatogonia that results in the occurence of tetraploid spermatocytes ws observed ( see fig1 c , below ). in summary , these data define an early and stage - specific meiotic role for the suv39h hmtases , and further suggest the existence of a novel h3 - k9 hmtase ( s ) which can methylate heterochromatin during meiotic prophase , diakinesis and in spermatids . [ 0193 ] fig1 shows the spermatogenic failure and h3 - k9 methylation in germ cells of suv39h dn mice as follows : ( a ) overall size and histology of wild - type and suv39h dn testes at ≈ 5 months of age . the suv39h dn testis section reveals many seminiferous tubules that lack spermatocytes ( sc ) and spermatids ( st ). in particular , although a few seminiferous tubules ( 1 ) contain zygotene spermatocytes ( zyg - sc ), more advanced differentiation stages ( 2 ) display apoptotic spermatocytes ( arrows ) at pachytene . at even later differntiation stages ( 3 ), pachytene spermatocytes are almost completely absent . some tubules ( 4 ) harbor only sertoli cells ( sec ). abbreviations : intermediate ( in - sg ) and b - type spermatogonia ( b - sg ); pre - leptotene ( prel - sc ), zygotene ( zyg - sc ), mid - pachytene ( mpach - sc ), late - pachytene ( lpach - sc ), diplotene ( diplo - sc ) and diakinesis / m - i ( m - i - sc ) spermatocytes ; round ( rst ), elongating ( elst ) and elongated ( est ) spermatids ; sertoli cells ( sec ). ( b ) double - labelling immunofluorescence of wt ( top panel ) and suv39h dn ( bottom panel ) germ cells with α - methh3 - k9 ( pink ) and ( α - scp3 ( green ) antibodies . dna was counterstained with dapi ( blue ). in suv39h dn germ cells , h3 - k9 methylation is absent in proliferating spermatogonia ( b - sg ) and in pre - leptotene spermatocytes ( prel - sc ), and is highly reduced in zygotene spermatocytes ( zyg - sc ) where only residual signals are detected at pericentric heterochromatin ( arrowheads ). at later stages , h3 - k9 methylation appears in a wild - type staining ( compare top and bottom panels ), although suv39h dn sex chromosomes ( arrows ) remain more intensely labeled at diplotene and diakinesis . the double arrow indicates the pseudo - autosomal region ( par ). the absence of pericentric h3 - k9 methylation in spermatogonia and early spermatocytes is suggestive for a role of the suv39h hmtases in defining a higher - order structure that may be required for the initial alignments and clustering of meiotic chromosomes . therefore chromosome synapsis was analyzed by immunofluorescence of pachytene spreads with antibodies that are specific for the axial / lateral and central elements of the synaptonemal complex ( sc ) ( fig1 a , b ). intriguingly , in ≈ 15 % ( n = 90 ) of suv39h dn spermatocytes , non - homologous interactions between autosomes were observed ( fig1 j ). non - homologous interactions were even more frequent (≈ 35 %) between sex chromosomes and autosomes ( x / y - a ). interestingly , these illegitimate associations occurred predominantly between the acrocentric ends ( cen - cen ) of non - homologous chromosomes , to a lesser extent between centromeres and telomeres ( cen - tel ) and only very rarely between telomeres ( tel - tel ) ( fig1 j ). in addition , suv39h dn spermatocytes contained unsynapsed sex chromosomes ( see below ) and autosomal bivalents that were delayed in synapsis . delayed synapsis of autosomes ( a - del ) almost invariably was correlated with engagement in non - homologous associations ( fig1 a ), suggesting that both processes may be functionally related . the illegitimate associations were further confirmed by transmission electron microscopy ( fig1 d - g ). these ultrastructural analyses revealed the presence of physical connections and bridge - like structures between the ends of non - homologous chromosomes ( double arrow in fig1 d , c , f ). the incidence of partner exchange ( fig1 g ) and non - homologous alignments were also observed . none of these aberrant chromosomal interactions were detected in em preparations from wt spermatocytes . to detemine whether the absence of methh3 - k9 in early prophase may affect chromosome dynamics and segregation during the meiotic divisions , testis spread preparations were next analyzed for diakinesis / metaphase i ( m - i ) and metaphase ii ( m - ii ) cells . at diakinesis / m - i , most suv39h dn spermatocytes revealed bivalents with wt - like morphology , indicating that chromosome condensation and chiasmata formation was unperturbed ( but see fig1 b - d , below ). however , at m - ii , ≈ 14 % of secondary spermatocytes were tetraploid , indicating segregation failure of all bivalents during the first meiotic division ( fig1 and 14 k ). therefore , the suv39h - induced defects at pericentric heterochromatin persist throughout the first meiotic division and do not appear to be ‘ rescued ’ by the additional h3 - k9 methylation that occurs during mid - to late meiotic prophase ( see fig1 b ). [ 0200 ] fig1 shows the illegitimate associations and delayed synapsis of suv39h dn meiotic chromosomes as follows : ( a - c ) double - labelling immunofluorescence of suv39h dn pachytene spermatocytes with antibodies that are specific for the axial / lateral elements ( α - scp3 ( in green ) and central elements α - scp1 ( in red ) of the synaptonemal complex ( sc ). this co - labelling reveals unsynapsed chromosomes in a green - like staining and synapsed chromosomes in an orange - red colour . dna was counterstained with dapi ( blue ) which highlights pericentric heterochromatin in a more intense blue contrast . ( a ) two mid - pachytene spermatocytes ( mpach - sc ) showing multiple illegitimate associations ( arrowheads ) between non - homologous autosomes ( a ) and between autosomes and sex chromomes ( x , y ). several autosomes are also delayed in synapsis ( a del ). ( b ) late pachytene ( lpach - sc ) spermatocyte containing two autosomes which are engaged in non - homologous interaction through their pericentric regions ( arrowhead ). in addition , the sex chromosomes failed to pair . ( c ) tetraploid spermatocyte resulting from complete mis - segregation of all chromosomes in the preceding mitotic division of a suv39h dn spermatogonium . ( d - g ) transmission electron microscopy of suv39h dn pachytene chromosomes , confirming that non - homologous chromosome associations mainly occur through pericentric heterochromatin which is visulised by the more granular silver staining ( arrowhead and double arrows ). the chromosomes displayed in panel g show multiple engagements of partner exchange . ( h , i ) giemsa - stained metaphase ii chromosomes of wt and suv39h dn secondary spermatocytes illustrating complete mis - segregation in the preceeding meiosis i division of suv39h dn cells . ( j ) histogram for the frequency of non - homologous chromosome associations and delayed synapsis in wt ( n = 80 ) and suv39h dn ( n = 90 ) pachytene spermatocytes . ( k ) histogram for the frequency of meiosis i mis - segregation of chromosome bivalents in wt ( n = 40 ) and suv39h dn ( n = 30 ) secondary spermatocytes . spermatogenesis in male mammals is specialised by the presence of the heteromorphic sex chromosomes which form a unique chromatin region known as the sex vesicle or xy body ( solari , 1974 ). moreover , the y chromosome is the most heterochromatic chromosome in the mouse ( pardue and gall , 1970 ). homolog pairing and cross - over between sex chromosomes is dependent upon the presence of a small , pseudo - autosomal region called par ( burgoyne , 1982 ). the absence of suv39h function interferes with the chromatin organization and segregation of the sex chromosomes in several ways . first , although methh3 - k9 signals at the xy body ( arrows in fig1 b ) were detected at comparable levels in wt and mutant pachytene spermatocytes , suv39h dn sex chromosomes remain more heavily methylated in diplotene and diakinesis ( see fig1 b , bottom panels ). correspondingly , prolonged hp1α binding to the xy body during diplotene was observed . second , at diakinesis / m - i , the proximal region of the long arm of the y chromosome appears hypo - condensed in 10 % of suv39h dn cells ( fig1 b , e ). moreover , the mutant y chromosomes display premature separation of their arms or even complete separation of the two sister chromatids ( fig1 d , e ). third , h3 - k9 methylation is present at the par ( double arrows in fig1 b ) in both wt and suv39h dn sex chromosomes , and the par is also decorated with hp1β . despite these similar staining patterns , the sex chromosomes failed to synapse in ≈ 15 % of suv39h dn pachytene spermatocytes ( fig1 a , b ). at diakinesis / m - i ( fig1 b , c ), the presence of xy univalents was 4 - fold increased as compared to wt cells ( fig1 f ). together , these data indicate a role for the suv39h hmtases in co - regulating the specialised chromatin structure of the sex chromosomes , in particular of the highly heterochromatic y chromosome . [ 0206 ] fig1 shows the aberrant function of the y chromosome during meiosis of suv39h dn spermatocytes as follows : giemsa - stained diakinesis / metaphase - i chromosomes of wt ( a ) and suv39h dn ( b - d ) primary spermatocytes illustrating univalency ( b , c ), impaired condensation ( b , c ) and premature sisterchromatid separation of the y chromosome ( c , d ). ( e ) histogram for the frequency of diakinesis / m - i cells with abnormal condensation or premature sisterchromatid separation of the y chromosome ( wt : n = 190 ; suv39h dn : n = 170 ). ( f ) histogram for the frequency of xy univalency at pachytene ( wt : n = 80 ; suv39h dn : n = 80 ) or diakinesis / m - i ( wt : n = 190 ; suv39h dn : n = 170 ). all steps are automated and the position of the different test compounds are registered on computer for later reference . compounds being tested for modulating activity are aliquoted into 384 well plates in duplicate . 20 - 200 nmol of recombinant gst tagged suv39h1 in mab buffer , is then added to the reaction . 20 nmol of branched peptide ([ tarkst ] 4 - k 2 - k - cys ) which has been labelled with europium is then added , followed by 100 nmol of s - adenosyl methionine . this reaction is left at room temperature for 40 mins , then transferred onto a second plate to which the α - methh3 - k9 antibody has been coated . this reaction is then left at room temperature for 40 mins to allow the antibody to bind methylated substrate . following capture of methylated substrate , unbound non - methylated substrate is washed off in 50 mm tris ph 8 . 5 . the europium label is then cleaved from the peptide in 50 μl ph 4 . 5 enhancement solution for 25 mins . the chelated europium molecules are then excited at 360 nm and the level of emitted fluorescence at 620 nm is then calculated using time - resolved fluorescence in a polarstar plate reader . the results are then automatically graphed . the level of fluorescence is directly related to the level of mtase activity . the effect of the different compounds on the mtase activity can be clearly seen on the graph when compared to control reactions with no componds added or with no enzyme added . a ) a suv39h1 - like mtase is incubated with s - adenosyl methionine ( sam ) and a chromogenically labelled unmodified peptide substrate ( e . g . branched peptide [ tarkst ] 4 - k2 - k - cys ). following methylation of this substrate the substrate becomes an epitope for a lys9 - methyl specific antibody which has been immobilised on a microtiter plate . the level of bound peptide can then be quantified by the level of fluorescence of from the chromogenic label . b ) in the presence of a modulator ( e . g . an inhibitor , i ) the transfer of methyl groups by the mtase will be affected ( decreased ), this in turn will affect the amount of substrate captured by the immobilised antibody , which is quantified by the level of fluorescence . a compound with inhibitory effects will result in a decrease in fluorescent signal , whereas a compound with enhancing effects will result in an increase in fluorescent signal . table i viability of suv39h double null mice . n1h2 × n1h2 × n1h2 × cross h1h2 a n1h2 h1n2 dn mice expected 1 : 8 1 : 4 1 : 4 total total # mice born 81 89 27 197 # dn mice expected b 11 27 8 46 # dn mice observed 4 8 3 15 % dn mice viable 36 . 4 29 . 6 37 . 5 32 . 6 [ 0212 ] table ii incidence of b - cell lymphomas in mice with reduced suv39h gene dosage suv39h # of mice total # % of mice genotype gene dosage with tumor of mice with tumor w1w2 3 0 57 0 w1h2 , w1n2 , 0 - 2 1 22 4 . 6 h1n2 h1w2 , n1w2 2 - 3 8 26 30 . 8 h1h2 , n1h2 * 1 - 2 20 72 27 . 8 n1n2 0 2 6 33 . 3 aagaard , l ., laible , g ., selenko , p ., schmid , m ., dorn , r ., schotta , g ., kuhfittig , s ., wolf , a ., lebersorger , a ., singh , p . b ., reuter , g . and jenuwein , t . 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( 1998 ) expression , purification , and characterization of recombinant ribulose - 1 , 5 - bisphosphate carboxylase / oxygenase large subunit n - epsilon - methyltransferase . protein expr purif , 14 , 104 - 12 . gaatgaaagc tccgcaag atg gcg acg gcc agg gcc aag gca cgg ggc agt 51 gag gca gga gcg cgg tgt cac cgg gct cca ggt ccg ccc ccg agg ccc 99 aag gcc agg cga acg gcg aga cgc cgc cgc gcg gag acc ctg acg gcg 147 cga cgc tcg cgg ccg tct gcg ggc gag agg cgc gcc ggc tcc cag cga 195 gcg tgg tcc gga gct ccg cgg gcc gcg gtc ttt ggc gac gag tgt gca 243 ala trp ser gly ala pro arg ala ala val phe gly asp glu cys ala cga ggt gcc tta ttc aag gcc tgg tgt gtg cct tgc cta gtt tca ctt 291 arg gly ala leu phe lys ala trp cys val pro cys leu val ser leu gat act ctc cag gaa tta tgt aga aaa gaa aag ctc aca tgt aaa tcg 339 att gga atc acc aaa agg aat cta aac aat tat gag gtg gag tac ttg 387 tgt gac tac aag gta gca aag ggt gtg gaa tat tat ctt gta aaa tgg 435 aaa gga tgg cca gat tct aca aac acc tgg gag ccc ttg aga aac ctc 483 lys gly trp pro asp ser thr asn thr trp glu pro leu arg asn leu agg tgt cca cag ctc ctg cgg cag ttc tct gat gac aag aag act tac 531 arg cys pro gln leu leu arg gln phe ser asp asp lys lys thr tyr tta gct cag gaa agg aaa tgc aag gct gtc aat tca aaa tcc ttg caa 579 cct gca att gct gag tat att gta cag aaa gct aag caa aga ata gct 627 ctg cag aga tgg caa gat tac ctc aac aga aga aag aac cat aag ggg 675 atg ata ttt gtt gaa aac act gtt gac ttg gag ggc cca cct tta gac 723 met ile phe val glu asn thr val asp leu glu gly pro pro leu asp ttc tac tac att aac gag tac agg cca gct ccc ggg atc agc ata aac 771 agt gaa gcc acc ttt gga tgt tca tgt aca gac tgc ttc ttt gac aag 819 tgt tgt cct gct gaa gct gga gtt gtg ttg gct tat aat aag aag caa 867 cys cys pro ala glu ala gly val val leu ala tyr asn lys lys gln caa att aaa atc caa cca ggc act ccc atc tac gaa tgc aac tca agg 915 gln ile lys ile gln pro gly thr pro ile tyr glu cys asn ser arg tgt cga tgt gga cct gaa tgt ccc aat agg att gta caa aaa ggc aca 963 cys arg cys gly pro glu cys pro asn arg ile val gln lys gly thr caa tat tca ctg tgc atc ttt aaa act agc aat ggc tgt ggt tgg ggt 1011 gln tyr ser leu cys ile phe lys thr ser asn gly cys gly trp gly gta aaa acc ctt gtg aag att aaa aga atg agt ttt gtc atg gaa tat 1059 val lys thr leu val lys ile lys arg met ser phe val met glu tyr gtt gga gag gtg atc aca agt gaa gag gcc gag aga cgg gga cag ttc 1107 tat gac aac aaa ggg atc acc tac ctc ttt gac ctg gac tac gag tct 1155 tyr asp asn lys gly ile thr tyr leu phe asp leu asp tyr glu ser gat gag ttc aca gtg gat gca gct cga tat gga aac gta tcc cat ttt 1203 asp glu phe thr val asp ala ala arg tyr gly asn val ser his phe gtg aat cat agt tgt gac cca aat ctt cag gtg ttt agt gtt ttc atc 1251 val asn his ser cys asp pro asn leu gln val phe ser val phe ile gat aac ctt gat act cgg ctg ccc agg ata gca ttg ttc tct aca aga 1299 acc ata aac gct gga gaa gag ctg act ttt gac tat caa atg aaa ggt 1347 thr ile asn ala gly glu glu leu thr phe asp tyr gln met lys gly tct gga gaa gca tct tca gac tcc att gac cac agc cct gcc aaa aaa 1395 agg gtc aga acc caa tgt aaa tgt gga gcc gag act tgc aga ggt tac 1443 lys ala trp cys val pro cys leu val ser leu asp thr leu gln glu leu arg gln phe ser asp asp lys lys thr tyr leu ala gln glu arg lys cys lys ala val asn ser lys ser leu gln pro ala ile ala glu asp tyr leu asn arg arg lys asn his lys gly met ile phe val glu asn thr val asp leu glu gly pro pro leu asp phe tyr tyr ile asn glu tyr arg pro ala pro gly ile ser ile asn ser glu ala thr phe glu cys pro asn arg ile val gln lys gly thr gln tyr ser leu cys ile phe lys thr ser asn gly cys gly trp gly val lys thr leu val thr ser glu glu ala glu arg arg gly gln phe tyr asp asn lys gly asp ala ala arg tyr gly asn val ser his phe val asn his ser cys glu glu leu thr phe asp tyr gln met lys gly ser gly glu ala ser ser asp ser ile asp his ser pro ala lys lys arg val arg thr gln