OpinionHistoneAcetylationEnzymesCoordinateMetabolismandGeneExpressionYuanShen,1WeiWei,2andDao-XiuZhou1,*Histonelysineacetylationiswellknownforbeingimportantintheepigeneticregulationofgeneexpressionineukaryoticcells.Recentstudieshaveuncov-eredaplethoraofacetylatedproteinsinvolvedinimportantmetabolicpath-ways,suchasphotosynthesisandrespirationinplants.Enzymesinvolvedinhistoneacetylationanddeacetylationarebeingidentifiedasregulatorsofacetylationofmetabolicenzymes.Importantly,keymetabolites,suchasacetyl-CoAandNAD+,areinvolvedinproteinacetylationanddeacetylationprocesses,andtheircellularlevelsmayregulatetheactivityofhistoneacetyl-transferases(HAT)anddeacetylases(HDAC).FurtherresearchisrequiredtodeterminewhetherandhowHATsandHDACssensecellularmetabolitesignalstocontrolgeneexpressionandmetabolicenzymeactivitythroughlysineacety-lationanddeacetylation.ProteinLysineAcetylationProteinlysineepsilonacetylation(seeGlossary)isareversibleandhighlyregulatedpost-translationalmodificationofproteins.Itiswellknownthathistonelysineacetylationhasapivotalroleinchromatinregulationandgeneexpressionineukaryoticcells.Ingeneral,histoneacetylationisassociatedwithanactivechromatinstateofgenes,whereashistonedeacetylationrepressesgeneexpression[1].Recentresultshaveshownthat,inadditiontoitsoccurrenceonhistoneproteins,lysineacetylationisawidespreadpost-translationalmodification,occurringinalargenumberofproteinsofdiversebiologicalfunctioninvariousorganisms,includingEubacteria[2],Archaea[3],Fungi[4],plants[5–7],andmammals[8].Enzymesofcentralcarbonmetabolismareparticulartargets,withmostenzymesofglycolysisandthetricarboxylicacid(TCA)cycleindifferentorganisms,aswellasphotosynthesisinplants,beingacetylated,andtheiracetylationstatusaffectingenzymaticactivitiesandregulatingmetabolicfluxthroughthesepathways[5,6,9,10].Therefore,proteinlysineacetylationhasanimportantroleinnotonlytheepigeneticregulationofgeneexpression,butalsothecontrolofmetabolicenzymeactivity.Conversely,importantmetab-olites,suchasacetyl-Co...
