Rabbit polyclonal antibody to UTX

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. Jumonji C (JmjC) domain~containing proteins represent the largest class of potential histone demethylase proteins. 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. Based on homology, both humans and mice contain at least 30 such proteins, which can be divided into 7 separate families. 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). This family of proteins has been shown to demethylate both di~ and tri~methyl histone H3 Lys 27. The UTX gene escapes X inactivation in females and is ubiquitously expressed. UTX functions to regulate HOX gene expression during development . JMJD3 functions to regulate gene expression in macrophages responding to various inflammatory stimuli and has been shown to be upregulated in prostate cancer. 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. The UTY gene is expressed in most tissues in the male mouse.