HAT activity

Clock gene and transcription factor with histone acetyl-transferase (HAT) activity that (in complex with BMAL1) constitutes a positive limb of molecular circadian oscillators. 

The core unit of the chromatin, the nucleosome, consists of histones arranged as an octamer consisting of a (H3/ H4)2-tetramer complexed with two histone H2A/H2B dimers. Accessibility to DNA-binding proteins (for replication, repair, or transcription) is achieved by posttranslational modifications of the amino-termini of the histones, the histone tails phosphorylation, acetylation, methylation, ubiquitination, and sumoyla-tion. Especially acetylation of histone tails has been linked to transcriptional activation, leading to weakened interaction of the core complexes with DNA and subsequently to decondensation of chromatin. In contrast, deacetylation leads to transcriptional repression. As mentioned above, transcriptional coactivators either possess HAT activity or recruit HATs. HDACs in turn act as corepressors. 

TFIIIC subunits TFIIIC90 and TFIIICllO. The known function of TFIIIC is to initiate transcription complex formation by binding to promoter DNA and recruiting TBP-containing TFIIIB and RNA polymerase III, that directs synthesis of tRNA precursors. TFIIIC have an intrinsic HAT activity. 

Hat Functionality Resetting Hat Overexpression, Hat Activators, Caspase/proteasome Inhibitors... 

Resetting HAT/CBP functionality is possible by three means either overexpressing the protein, enhance the activity of the remaining protein with HAT activators or blocking its degradation in the first place. 

Several small molecule modulators (SMM) of p300 and PCAF have been developed (Varier et al, 2004). Recently, the first naturally occurring HAT inhibitor anacardic acid was isolated from cashew nut shell liquid, which inhibits the HAT activity of both p300 and PCAF very effectively (Balasubramanyam et al, 2003). By using anacardic acid as a synthon, an amide derivative of anacardic acid, CTPB, has been synthesized, which is the only known small molecule activator of any histone acetyltransferase, in this case, p300. However, cells are impermeable or... 

While all MYST family members possess intrinsic HAT activity, they do not function in isolation in vivo but, rather, are found in multisubunit protein complexes. Thus, to fully understand or to plausibly speculate about the potential roles of MYST HATs in disease, it is necessary to incorporate the known facts about other complex members. To this end, the sections of this chapter that discuss individual MYST HATs will also describe the complexes within which they function and summarize the available disease-related information about other complex components. 

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