Background
Histones are subjected to a variety of enzyme catalyzed modifications, including acetylation, methylation, ubiquitylation and newly discovered succinylation, crotonylation and 2-hydroxyisobutyrylation, etc. These modifications have a direct effect on the accessibility of chromatin to transcription factors and, therefore, on gene expression. Histone H3 phosphorylation is specifically phosphorylated during both mitosis and meiosis that is believed to be mainly involved in transcriptional activation requiring chromatin fiber decondensation, and chromosome compaction during cell division. Histone H3 phosphorylation may initiate at different phases of the cell division in different organisms, but metaphase chromosomes are always found to be heavily phosphorylated.
Cellular location
Nucleus
