A research project conducted by Reia Shikimachi, who graduated in 2023, has been published in the international journal Journal of Biological Chemistry. The study reports the cryo–electron microscopy structures of the UHRF1–nucleosome complex.
UHRF1 is an essential factor for maintenance DNA methylation, where it mono-ubiquitinates histone H3 within the nucleosome. In this work, we determined the structure of UHRF1 bound to a nucleosome containing hemimethylated DNA and H3K9me3 using cryo-electron microscopy single-particle analysis. Our analysis revealed that an arginine anchor within the TTD domain of UHRF1 interacts directly with the acidic patch of the nucleosome. We further demonstrated that this previously unrecognized interaction contributes to efficient histone H3 ubiquitination by UHRF1.
