Histone in cytoplasm - (Mar/26/2011 )

Does anyone know what the significance of detecting histone methylation in the cytoplasm means? i.e. Not doing a nuclear extract but just a regular protein extraction.

It could mean your cytoplasmic fraction is contaminated with nuclear contents. You would need to show that your cytoplasmic fractions are not contaminated by western blotting for a protein you think should be localized to the nucleus.......like a transcription factor or maybe even RNA Pol. If that looks good then it depends on the methylation mark that you see, some histone modifying proteins also play roles in methylation dependent cytoplasmic signaling cascades.