Advances in the research of histone methyltransferases

Methylation on lysine residue of histone protein is a general but important modification which usually happens on histone 3 or histone 4. Recent advances in studying structure and function of methyltransferases during the past years, more and more information has been obtained about the histone methylation modification.Different kinds of methyltransferases have different effects on gene transcription. This article reviews methyltransferases and their classifications, structure and regulation function, and elaborates the research advances in this field. Key words: Histone ;  Methyltransferase ;  Transcription regulation ;  Epigenetics ;