Histone H3Y99sulf regulates hepatocellular carcinoma responding to hypoxia

Abstract

Histone H3 Tyr-99 sulfation (H3Y99sulf) is a recently identified histone mark that can cross-talk with H4R3me2a to regulate gene transcription, but its role in cancer biology is less studied. Here we report that H3Y99sulf is a cancer-associated histone mark that can mediate hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells responding to hypoxia. Hypoxia-stimulated Snail pathway elevates the expression of PAPSS2, which serves as a source of PAPS for histone sulfation and results in upregulation of H3Y99sulf. The transcription factor TDRD3 is the downstream effector of H3Y99sulf-H4R3me2a axis in HCC. It reads and co-localizes with the H3Y99sulf-H4R3me2a dual mark in the promoter regions of HIF1A and PDK1 to regulate gene transcription. Depletion of SULT1B1 can effectively reduce the occurrence of H3Y99sulf-H4R3me2a-TDRD3 axis in gene promoter regions and lead to downregulation of targeted gene transcription. HIF-1α and PDK1 are master regulators for hypoxic responses and cancer metabolism. Disruption of the H3Y99sulf-H4R3me2a-TDRD3 axis can inhibit the expression and functions of HIF-1α and PDK1, resulting in suppressed proliferation, tumor growth, and survival of HCC cells suffering hypoxia stress. The present study extends the regulatory and functional mechanisms of H3Y99sulf and improves our understanding of its role in cancer biology.