Dataset Information

Evidence of association between nucleosome occupancy and the evolution of transcription factor binding sites in yeast.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Divergence of transcription factor binding sites is considered to be an important source of regulatory evolution. The associations between transcription factor binding sites and phenotypic diversity have been investigated in many model organisms. However, the understanding of other factors that contribute to it is still limited. Recent studies have elucidated the effect of chromatin structure on molecular evolution of genomic DNA. Though the profound impact of nucleosome positions on gene regulation has been reported, their influence on transcriptional evolution is still less explored. With the availability of genome-wide nucleosome map in yeast species, it is thus desirable to investigate their impact on transcription factor binding site evolution. Here, we present a comprehensive analysis of the role of nucleosome positioning in the evolution of transcription factor binding sites.

Results

We compared the transcription factor binding site frequency in nucleosome occupied regions and nucleosome depleted regions in promoters of old (orthologs among Saccharomycetaceae) and young (Saccharomyces specific) genes; and in duplicate gene pairs. We demonstrated that nucleosome occupied regions accommodate greater binding site variations than nucleosome depleted regions in young genes and in duplicate genes. This finding was confirmed by measuring the difference in evolutionary rates of binding sites in sensu stricto yeasts at nucleosome occupied regions and nucleosome depleted regions. The binding sites at nucleosome occupied regions exhibited a consistently higher evolution rate than those at nucleosome depleted regions, corroborating the difference in the selection constraints at the two regions. Finally, through site-directed mutagenesis experiment, we found that binding site gain or loss events at nucleosome depleted regions may cause more expression differences than those in nucleosome occupied regions.

Conclusions

Our study indicates the existence of different selection constraint on binding sites at nucleosome occupied regions than at the nucleosome depleted regions. We found that the binding sites have a different rate of evolution at nucleosome occupied and depleted regions. Finally, using transcription factor binding site-directed mutagenesis experiment, we confirmed the difference in the impact of binding site changes on expression at these regions. Thus, our work demonstrates the importance of composite analysis of chromatin and transcriptional evolution.

SUBMITTER: Swamy KB

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3124427 | biostudies-literature | 2011 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Evidence of association between nucleosome occupancy and the evolution of transcription factor binding sites in yeast.

Swamy Krishna B S KB Chu Wen-Yi WY Wang Chun-Yi CY Tsai Huai-Kuang HK Wang Daryi D

BMC evolutionary biology 20110531

<h4>Background</h4>Divergence of transcription factor binding sites is considered to be an important source of regulatory evolution. The associations between transcription factor binding sites and phenotypic diversity have been investigated in many model organisms. However, the understanding of other factors that contribute to it is still limited. Recent studies have elucidated the effect of chromatin structure on molecular evolution of genomic DNA. Though the profound impact of nucleosome posit ...[more]

PMID: 21627806

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Project description:BACKGROUND: The binding of transcription factors (TFs) to specific DNA sequences is an initial and crucial step of transcription. In eukaryotes, this process is highly dependent on the local chromatin state, which can be modified by recruiting chromatin remodelers. However, previous studies have focused mainly on nucleosome occupancy around the TF binding sites (TFBSs) of a few specific TFs. Here, we investigated the nucleosome occupancy profiles around computationally inferred binding sites, based on 519 TF binding motifs, in human GM12878 and K562 cells. RESULTS: Although high nucleosome occupancy is intrinsically encoded at TFBSs in vitro, nucleosomes are generally depleted at TFBSs in vivo, and approximately a quarter of TFBSs showed well-positioned in vivo nucleosomes on both sides. RNA polymerase near the transcription start site (TSS) has a large effect on the nucleosome occupancy distribution around the binding sites located within one kilobase to the nearest TSS; fuzzier nucleosome positioning was thus observed around these sites. In addition, in contrast to yeast, repressors, rather than activators, were more likely to bind to nucleosomal DNA in the human cells, and nucleosomes around repressor sites were better positioned in vivo. Genes with repressor sites exhibiting well-positioned nucleosomes on both sides, and genes with activator sites occupied by nucleosomes had significantly lower expression, suggesting that actions of activators and repressors are associated with the nucleosome occupancy around their binding sites. It was also interesting to note that most of the binding sites, which were not in the DNase I-hypersensitive regions, were cell-type specific, and higher in vivo nucleosome occupancy were observed at these binding sites. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that RNA polymerase and the functions of bound TFs affected the local nucleosome occupancy around TFBSs, and nucleosome occupancy patterns around TFBSs were associated with the expression levels of target genes.

Dataset Information

Evidence of association between nucleosome occupancy and the evolution of transcription factor binding sites in yeast.

Background

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Evidence of association between nucleosome occupancy and the evolution of transcription factor binding sites in yeast.

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