Histone H1 deamidation: new insight into chromatin relaxation and DNA damage repair
摘要
The article titled “Histone H1 Deamidation Facilitates Chromatin Relaxation for DNA Repair” was published in Nature in April 2025 by Tian et al. It presents significant advancements in our understanding of the mechanisms underlying chromatin relaxation and DNA damage repair. The authors identified a post-translational modification—histone H1 deamidation—as a pivotal mechanism that promotes chromatin relaxation and facilitates the repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), in part by enabling subsequent acetylation modifications. This discovery not only deepens our understanding of the “deamidation–acetylation” cascade of linker histone modifications but also uncovers a promising new target for precisely modulating DNA repair capacity in cancer therapy.