Abstract 1636 Molecular interactions determining the specificity of a lysine deacetylase

Metal-dependent lysine deacetylases (KDACs, also known as histone deacetylases or HDACs) are a family of enzymes responsible for reversing the post-translation modification of lysine acetylation. Because the eleven members of the KDAC family have a conserved catalytic domain structure, the determinants of substrate selectivity for each KDAC are not obvious. Although some acetylated proteins have been associated with particular KDACs as putative substrates, there are few such proteins for which the KDAC responsible for deacetylation has been definitively established.