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

Histone H3K36 can be added up to three methyl groups to form mono-, di-, and tri-methylation states. Recent study has shown that Set2 can suppress a specific group of antisense transcripts, which largely depends on the presence of H3K36 methylation. However, whether different methylation states possess distinct regulatory mechanisms on antisense transcripts is still unclear. In this study, we identified two yeast mutants that lack H3K36 di-methylation and tri-methylation, respectively. We also identified novel antisense transcripts in the absence of Set2 with own bioinformatics pipeline. Our study showed that the expression of these antisense transcripts does not affect the expression of corresponding sense genes. Different H3K36 methylation states (me2/me3) are not specific for the regulation of antisense expression, implying a co-regulation mechanism between them. Altogether, our study developed a method to identify new antisense transcripts, examined the potential effect of H3K36 di-methylation and tri-methylation on production of antisense transcripts. This study would shed light on the mechanism underlying how H3K36 methylation functions in the production of antisense transcripts. RNA-seq analysis of antisense expression in set2-delta, set2-Y149F and set2-Y236F cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.