Although protein methylation has been observed for decades, its functional
significance has remained largely unclear. Using sensitive profile searches and
structural modeling, chromatin silencing protein and meiotic recombination
checkpoint regulator Dot1p was identified as a putative protein
methyltransferase. Along with recent results that link histone H3 methylation
with chromatin silencing, this finding suggests that an expanded combinatorial
repertoire of protein modifications affects transcriptional regulation.
