Researchers from the Department of Chemistry have revealed the catalytic strategy of a key enzyme for epigenetic regulation. Rajeev Ramanan, a postdoctoral scholar (Chem), currently an assistant professor at NIT Rourkela (India), Shobhit Chaturvedi, a Ph.D. candidate (Chem), Chris Schofield, University of Oxford (UK), Nicolai Lehnert, the University of Michigan, led by Christo Z. Christov (Chem) and Tatyana Karabencheva-Christova (Chem) published an article entitled: “Catalysis By the JmjC Histone Demethylase KDM4A Integrates Substrate Dynamics, Correlated Motions and Molecular Orbital Control” in Chemical Science, the flagship journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
The study focuses on a key enzyme for epigenetic regulation — non-heme Fe (II) Histone Demethylase KDM4A and reveals the important catalytic interactions that distinguish KDM4A from other KDMs and its catalytic mechanism with natural and alternative substrates. The research is supported by NSF grant 1904215.