Fig. 7. SET8-H4K20me1 pathway promotes housekeeping gene transcription through chromatin structure modulation.

Detailed model depicting the chromatin conformation at (i) state 1 and (ii) state 2. In state 1, transcription of housekeeping genes is promoted by dynamic H4 tails having H4K20me1 enrichment creating an open chromatin environment. State 2 represents intergenic regions with more static H4 tails having H4K20me3 enrichment. This creates a more compact chromatin which is transcriptionally repressive. In the absence of SET8, expanding H4K20me0 regions promote H4 tails more similar to the H4K20me3 conformation (state 2) resulting in more compact chromatin environment repressive towards transcription.