UTY (E3C2J) Rabbit mAb #48779

The methylation state of lysine residues in histone proteins is a major determinant of the formation of active and inactive regions of the genome and is crucial for proper programming of the genome during development (1,2). Jumonji C (JmjC) domain-containing proteins represent the largest class of potential histone demethylase proteins (3). The JmjC domain can catalyze the demethylation of mono-, di-, and tri-methyl lysine residues via an oxidative reaction that requires iron and α-ketoglutarate (3). Based on homology, both humans and mice contain at least 30 such proteins, which can be divided into 7 separate families (3). The three members of the UTX/UTY family include the ubiquitously transcribed X chromosome tetratricopeptide repeat protein (UTX), the ubiquitously transcribed Y chromosome tetratricopeptide repeat protein (UTY), and JmjC domain-containing protein 3 (JMJD3) (3). This family of proteins has been shown to demethylate both di- and tri-methyl histone H3 Lys 27 (4-8). The UTX gene escapes X inactivation in females and is ubiquitously expressed (9). UTX functions to regulate HOX gene expression during development (4-6). JMJD3 functions to regulate gene expression in macrophages responding to various inflammatory stimuli and has been shown to be upregulated in prostate cancer (7,8). Both UTX and JMJD3 interact with mixed-lineage leukemia (MLL) complexes 2 and 3, both of which have been shown to methylate histone H3 at Lys4 (6,7). The UTY gene is expressed in most tissues in the male mouse (10).