Family Jumonji

The jumonji (jmj) gene was identified by a mouse gene trap approach and has essential roles in the development of multiple tissues. The Jmj protein has a DNA binding domain, ARID, and two conserved jmj domains (jmjN and jmjC). In many diverse species including bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals, there are many jumonji family proteins that have only the jmjC domain or both jmj domains. Recently, Jmj protein was found to be a transcriptional repressor. Several proteins in the jumonji family are involved in transcriptional repression and/or chromatin regulation (PMID:16715513). The jmjC-domain containing proteins were found to be able to remove histone methyl groups. Multiple JmjC domain-containing histone demethylases have been identified in animal cells, which are divided into distinct groups according to sequence similarities, including JARID/KDM5, JMJD1/JHDM2/KDM3, JMJD2/KDM4, JMJD3/KDM6, JHDM1/FBX/KDM2 and the JmjC domain-only group. Different groups target specific histone lysines at different methylation states. Rice and Arabidopsis contain Jmj proteins that are important for the regulation of gene expression in those respective organisms (PMID:21419882).