The histone 3 lysine 36 methyltransferase, SET2, is involved in transcriptional elongation

Existing evidence indicates that SET2, the histone 3 lysine 36 methyltransferase of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is a transcriptional repressor. Here we show by five main lines of evidence that SET2 is involved in transcriptional elongation. First, most, if not all, subunits of the RNAP II holoenzyme co-purify with SET2. Second, all of the co-purifying RNAP II subunit, RPO21, was phosphorylated at serines 5 and 2 of the C-terminal domain (CTD) tail, indicating that the SET2 association is specific to either the elongating or SSN3 repressed forms (or both) of RNAP II. Third, the association of SET2 with CTD phosphorylated RPO21 remained in the absence of ssn3. Fourth, in the absence of ssn3, mRNA production from gal1 required SET2. Fifth, SET2 was detected on gal1 by in vivo crosslinking after, but not before, the induction of transcription. Similarly, SET2 physically associated with the transcribed region of pdr5 but was not detected on gal1 or pdr5 promoter regions. Since SET2 is also a histone methyltransferase, these results suggest a role for histone 3 lysine 36 methylation in transcriptional elongation.