Abstract 14180: The Histone Methyltransferase Smyd1 Regulates Cardiac Hypertrophy In Adult Myocardium

Transcriptionally active and inactive chromatin is associated with structurally loosely or densely packed DNA, respectively, a dichotomy correlated with specific post-translational modifications on histones in these regions. While global changes in gene expression are a hallmark of cardiac hypertrophy and failure, much less is known regarding the proteins responsible for modulating histone modifications and chromatin accessibility in the heart. To identify novel chromatin binding proteins active in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy we carried out quantitative proteomic analysis of cardiac chromatin from mice after pressure-overload induced hypertrophy. Among the proteins identified was the histone methyltransferase Smyd1, which we found to be upregulated. Germline deletion of Smyd1 was previously shown to be embryonically lethal, however its role in the adult myocardium is unknown. To determine the role of Smyd1 in the adult heart we generated inducible cardiac-specific Smyd1 knock-out mice (crossing Mer-Cre-Me...