Structure of HDAC3 bound to corepressor and inositol tetraphosphate

Histone deacetylase enzymes (HDACs) are emerging cancer drug targets. They regulate gene expression by removing acetyl groups from lysine residues in histone tails resulting in chromatin condensation. The enzymatic activity of most class I HDACs requires recruitment to corepressor complexes. We report the first structure of an HDAC:corepressor complex - HDAC3 with the deacetylase-activation-domain (DAD) from the SMRT corepressor. The structure reveals two remarkable features. First the SMRT-DAD undergoes a large structural rearrangement on forming the complex. Second there is an essential inositol tetraphosphate molecule, Ins(1,4,5,6)P(4), acting as an ‘intermolecular glue’ between the two proteins. Assembly of the complex is clearly dependent on the Ins(1,4,5,6)P(4), which may act as a regulator – potentially explaining why inositol phosphates and their kinases have been found to act as transcriptional regulators. This mechanism for the activation of HDAC3 appears to be conserved in class I HDACs from yeast to man and opens novel therapeutic opportunities.