RNA polymerase II phosphorylation at serine 2 and histone H3 tri-methylation at lysine 36 are key steps for thyroid hormone receptor β gene activation by thyroid hormone in Rana catesbeiana tadpole liver.

Thyroid hormone (TH) is essential for amphibian metamorphosis, during which the expression of many genes is controlled directly or indirectly through TH receptors (TRs). Thyroid hormone binding to TRs induces coregulator switching on regulatory regions of TH-inducible genes: corepressors complexed with unliganded TRs are replaced by coactivators complexed with liganded TR resulting in transcriptionally active states. The coregulator switching is linked to histone acetylation. In our study, we have investigated the acetylation and methylation states of histones H3 and H4 using chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays on the 5' coding region of the TRβ gene, a primary TH-response gene, in the liver from Rana catesbeiana tadpoles either treated with or not treated with 3,3',5-triiodothyronine (T3). 3,3',5-Triiodothyronine treatment for 3 days increased the amount of TRβ transcript by 19-fold. This increase was associated with increases in the acetylation of histone H4 and lysine 9 in histone H3 (H3-K9), and tri-methylation of lysine 36 in histone H3 (H3-K36). In addition, the amounts of RNA polymerase II (PolII) and serine 2 phosphorylation in PolII (PolII-S2) increased. These results suggest that T3 treatment enhances the elongation activity of PolII on the TRβ gene in the liver by increasing histone H3-K36 tri-methylation through PolII-S2 phosphorylation.