The methyltransferase METTL9 mediates pervasive 1-methylhistidine modification in mammalian proteomes

Erna Davydova, Tadahiro Shimazu, Maren Kirstin Schuhmacher, Magnus E Jakobsson, Hanneke L D M Willemen, Tongri Liu, Anders Moen, Angela Y Y Ho, Jędrzej Małecki, Lisa Schroer, Rita Pinto, Takehiro Suzuki, Ida A Grønsberg, Yoshihiro Sohtome, Mai Akakabe, Sara Weirich, Masaki Kikuchi, Jesper V Olsen, Naoshi Dohmae, Takashi UmeharaMikiko Sodeoka, Valentina Siino, Michael A McDonough, Niels Eijkelkamp, Christopher J Schofield, Albert Jeltsch, Yoichi Shinkai, Pål Ø Falnes

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Abstract

Post-translational methylation plays a crucial role in regulating and optimizing protein function. Protein histidine methylation, occurring as the two isomers 1- and 3-methylhistidine (1MH and 3MH), was first reported five decades ago, but remains largely unexplored. Here we report that METTL9 is a broad-specificity methyltransferase that mediates the formation of the majority of 1MH present in mouse and human proteomes. METTL9-catalyzed methylation requires a His-x-His (HxH) motif, where "x" is preferably a small amino acid, allowing METTL9 to methylate a number of HxH-containing proteins, including the immunomodulatory protein S100A9 and the NDUFB3 subunit of mitochondrial respiratory Complex I. Notably, METTL9-mediated methylation enhances respiration via Complex I, and the presence of 1MH in an HxH-containing peptide reduced its zinc binding affinity. Our results establish METTL9-mediated 1MH as a pervasive protein modification, thus setting the stage for further functional studies on protein histidine methylation.

Original languageEnglish
Article number891
Number of pages14
JournalNature Communications
Volume12
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 9 Feb 2021

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