The human histone deacetylase family

Since the identification of the first histone deacetylase (Taunton et at, S cience 272, 408-411), several new members have been isolated. They can loos ely be separated into entities on the basis of their similarity to various yeast histone deacetylases. The first class is represented by its closeness to the yeast Rpd3-like proteins, and the second most recently discovered c lass has similarities to yeast Hda1-like proteins. However, due to the fact that several different research groups isolated the Hda1-like histone deac etylases independently, there have been various different nomenclatures use d to describe the various members, which can lead to confusion in the inter pretation of this family's functions and interactions. With the discovery o f another novel murine histone deacetylase, homologous to yeast Sir2, the n umber of members of this family is set to increase, as 7 human homologues o f this gene have been isolated. In the light of these recent discoveries, w e have examined the literature data and conducted a database analysis of th e isolated histone deacetylases and potential candidates. The results obtai ned suggest that the number of; histone deacetylases within the human genom e may be as high as 17 and are discussed in relation to their homology to t he yeast histone deacetylases. (C) 2001 Academic Press.