Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Histone H2B

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Signaling Molecules

  • 68 Accesses

Synonyms

H2Bub1

Historical Background

Of all the proteins in eukaryotic cells, histones, first recognized in the late 1800s, are the proteins most frequently bound to DNA. Histones are small, highly conserved basic proteins. The interaction between histones and DNA is fundamental for the packaging of DNA around nucleosomes to form chromatin. Nucleosomes consist of a histone octamer comprised of two copies of each of the core histone proteins H2A, H2B, H3, and H4, around which approximately 147 nucleotides of DNA is wrapped. Within the nucleosome, histones H2A and H2B consist as two H2A:H2B dimers and the H3:H4 relationship is a tetramer (Kornberg and Lorch 1999). Histone H1 distinguishes itself by falling outside of the core histone group, functioning to link strands of DNA on entry and exit of the nucleosome. NH2-terminal tails of core histones extend outside of the core structure, exposing residues on these tails to dynamic posttranslational modifications (PTMs) that are critical to...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Albig W, Trappe R, Kardalinou E, Eick S, Doenecke D. The human H2A and H2B histone gene complement. Biol Chem. 1999;380:7–18.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cole AJ, Clifton-Bligh R, Marsh DJ. Histone H2B monoubiquitination: roles to play in human malignancy. Endocr Relat Cancer. 2015;22:T19–33.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dawson MA, Kouzarides T. Cancer epigenetics: from mechanism to therapy. Cell. 2012;150:12–27.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dawson MA, Kouzarides T, Huntly BJ. Targeting epigenetic readers in cancer. N Engl J Med. 2012;367:647–57.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Espinosa JM. Histone H2B ubiquitination: the cancer connection. Genes Dev. 2008;22:2743–9.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Fierz B, Chatterjee C, McGinty RK, Bar-Dagan M, Raleigh DP, Muir TW. Histone H2B ubiquitylation disrupts local and higher-order chromatin compaction. Nat Chem Biol. 2011;7:113–9.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Fuchs G, Oren M. Writing and reading H2B monoubiquitylation. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2014;1839:694–701.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hahn MA, Dickson KA, Jackson S, Clarkson A, Gill AJ, Marsh DJ. The tumor suppressor CDC73 interacts with the ring finger proteins RNF20 and RNF40 and is required for the maintenance of histone 2B monoubiquitination. Hum Mol Genet. 2012;21:559–68.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Johnsen SA. The enigmatic role of H2Bub1 in cancer. FEBS Lett. 2012;586:1592–601.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kamakaka RT, Biggins S. Histone variants: deviants? Genes Dev. 2005;19:295–310.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kim J, Hake SB, Roeder RG. The human homolog of yeast BRE1 functions as a transcriptional coactivator through direct activator interactions. Mol Cell. 2005;20:759–70.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kornberg RD, Lorch Y. Twenty-five years of the nucleosome, fundamental particle of the eukaryote chromosome. Cell. 1999;98:285–94.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Marzluff WF, Gongidi P, Woods KR, Jin J, Maltais LJ. The human and mouse replication-dependent histone genes. Genomics. 2002;80:487–98.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Melling N, Grimm N, Simon R, Stahl P, Bokemeyer C, Terracciano L, Sauter G, Izbicki JR, Marx AH. Loss of H2Bub1 expression is linked to poor prognosis in nodal negative colorectal cancers. Pathol Oncol Res. 2016;22:95–102.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Minsky N, Shema E, Field Y, Schuster M, Segal E, Oren M. Monoubiquitinated H2B is associated with the transcribed region of highly expressed genes in human cells. Nat Cell Biol. 2008;10:483–8.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Prenzel T, Begus-Nahrmann Y, Kramer F, Hennion M, Hsu C, Gorsler T, Hintermair C, Eick D, Kremmer E, Simons M, et al. Estrogen-dependent gene transcription in human breast cancer cells relies upon proteasome-dependent monoubiquitination of histone H2B. Cancer Res. 2011;71:5739–53.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shema-Yaacoby E, Nikolov M, Haj-Yahya M, Siman P, Allemand E, Yamaguchi Y, Muchardt C, Urlaub H, Brik A, Oren M, et al. Systematic identification of proteins binding to chromatin-embedded ubiquitylated H2B reveals recruitment of SWI/SNF to regulate transcription. Cell Rep. 2013;4:601–8.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Singh R, Mortazavi A, Telu KH, Nagarajan P, Lucas DM, Thomas-Ahner JM, Clinton SK, Byrd JC, Freitas MA, Parthun MR. Increasing the complexity of chromatin: functionally distinct roles for replication-dependent histone H2A isoforms in cell proliferation and carcinogenesis. Nucleic Acids Res. 2013;41:9284–95.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Urasaki Y, Heath L, Xu CW. Coupling of glucose deprivation with impaired histone H2B monoubiquitination in tumors. PLoS One. 2012;7:e36775.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Wang ZJ, Yang JL, Wang YP, Lou JY, Chen J, Liu C, Guo LD. Decreased histone H2B monoubiquitination in malignant gastric carcinoma. World J Gastroenterol. 2013;19:8099–107.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hormones and Cancer Division, Kolling Institute of Medical Research, University of Sydney and Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Deborah J Marsh

Authors
  1. Deborah J Marsh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Deborah J Marsh .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Biological Science, Department of Molecular Science and Tech College of Natural Science, Suwon, Korea (Republic of)

    Sangdun Choi

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media LLC

About this entry

Cite this entry

Marsh, D.J. (2016). Histone H2B. In: Choi, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Signaling Molecules. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6438-9_101659-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6438-9_101659-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6438-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation