Premium
Identification of a nucleosomal region required for the proper distribution of the transcription elongation factor Spt16 across transcribed genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Author(s) -
Duina Andrea Angelo,
Nguyen Trang Hoai,
Wharton William,
Harper Jennifer Aileen
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.26.1_supplement.923.2
Subject(s) - histone octamer , nucleosome , histone code , histone h4 , histone h2a , chromatin , genetics , biology , histone h3 , histone h1 , histone methylation , histone , chromatin remodeling , microbiology and biotechnology , gene , gene expression , dna methylation
In eukaryotic cells, DNA associates with several proteins to form a compacted structure referred to as chromatin. The basic unit of chromatin is the nucleosome, a particle consisting of a stretch of DNA wrapped around the histone octamer, itself composed of pairs of four core histone proteins: histones H2A, H2B, H3 and H4. In previous studies we described a mutant of histone H3 – H3‐L61W – that causes abnormal accumulation of Spt16 at the 3′ ends of transcribed genes. We now report that a mutation in histone H4 – H4‐R36A – causes a similar defect in Spt16 association with chromatin during transcription. Genetic evidence indicates that the H3‐L61W and H4‐R36A mutations affect Spt16 function through a common mechanism and an inspection of the crystal structure of the core nucleosome particle revealed that the H3‐L61 and H4‐R36 residues are located in close proximity to each other. These results suggest that a nucleosomal region defined by H3‐L61 and H4‐R36 plays a key role in ensuring proper Spt16 interactions with genes. We propose a model in which the region defined by these residues participates in a signal required for Spt16 to properly disengage from genes following the transcription process. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant No. 0919241.