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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2022 Nov 4.
Published in final edited form as: Mol Cell. 2021 Oct 6;81(21):4357–4368. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2021.09.011

Figure 1. Classification of the types of methyl-arginines and protein arginine methyltransferases.

Figure 1.

A. Type I and II PRMTs generate monomethyl-arginine (Rme1, MMA) from arginine as a first step, followed by asymmetrical dimethyl-arginine (Rme2a, aDMA; Type I, PRMT1, PRMT2, PRMT3, CARM1, PRMT6 and PRMT8) and symmetrical dimethyl-arginine (Rme2s, sDMA; Type II, PRMT5 and PRMT9) on the guanidino nitrogen atoms using S-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet) converting it to S-adenosylhomocysteine (AdoHcy). The Type III PRMT7 generates only Rme1 (MMA). The guanidinium moiety is shown as a triangle with its H-bonding and π-stacking properties. An arginine demethylase is not known.

B. The known preference of arginine motifs for the PRMTs. PRMT7 has a preference for arginines within the RxR sequences; CARM1 prefers to methylate arginines with neighboring prolines, glycines, and methionines (PGM); PRMT1, PRMT3, PRMT5 and PRMT6 have preference for arginines with neighboring glycines within RGG/RG motifs.