Methyl-lysine analogue (MLA) histones are recombinant histones with chemically-installed site-specific methylation. They can be used to test the direct biochemical effects of histone lysine methylation in reconstituted chromatin. They were developed while Matt was a graduate student working with Kevan Shokat.
More information about MLA histones, see:
Simon, M. D., Chu, F., Racki, L. R., de la Cruz, C. C., Burlingame, A. L., Panning, B., Narlikar, G. J., and Shokat, K. M. (2007) The site-specific installation of methyl-lysine analogs into recombinant histones, Cell 128, 1003-1012. PMID:17350582. (Pubmed)
Simon, M. D., and Shokat, K. M. (2012) A method to site-specifically incorporate methyl-lysine analogues into recombinant proteins, Methods Enzymol512, 57-69. PMID:22910202. (Pubmed)
Simon, M. D. (2010) Installation of site-specific methylation into histones using methyl lysine analogs, Curr Protoc Mol Biol Chapter 21, Unit 21 18 21-10. PMID:20373501. (Pubmed)