Project description:We use MNase-Seq to elucidate primary chromatin architecture in an archaeon without histones, the acido-thermophilic archaeon Thermoplasma acidophilum. Like all members of the Thermoplasmatales, T. acidophilum harbours a HU family protein, HTa, that is highly expressed and protects - like histones but unlike well-characterized bacterial HU proteins – a sizeable fraction of the genome from MNase digestion. Comparing HTa-based chromatin architecture to that of three histone-encoding archaea, Methanothermus fervidus, Haloferax volcanii, and Thermococcus kodakkarensis, we present evidence that HTa is an archaeal histone analog. HTa-protected fragments are GC-rich, display histone-like mono- and dinucleotide patterns around the dyad, exhibit relatively invariant positioning throughout the growth cycle, and show archaeal histone-like oligomerization dynamics. Our results suggest that HTa, a DNA-binding protein of bacterial origin, has converged onto an architectural role filled by histones in other archaea.
Project description:In archaea, RNA endonucleases that act specifically on RNA with bulge-helix-bulge motifs play the main role in the recognition and excision of introns, while the eukaryal enzymes use a measuring mechanism to determine the positions of the universally positioned splice sites relative to the conserved domain of pre-tRNA. Two crystallographic structures of tRNA intron-splicing endonuclease from Thermoplasma acidophilum DSM 1728 (EndA(Ta)) have been solved to 2.5-A and 2.7-A resolution by molecular replacement, using the 2.7-A resolution data as the initial model and the single-wavelength anomalous-dispersion phasing method using selenomethionine as anomalous signals, respectively. The models show that EndA(Ta) is a homodimer and that it has overall folding similar to that of other archaeal tRNA endonucleases. From structural and mutational analyses of H236A, Y229F, and K265I in vitro, we have demonstrated that they play critical roles in recognizing the splice site and in cleaving the pre-tRNA substrate.
Project description:We use MNase-Seq to elucidate primary chromatin architecture in an archaeon without histones, the acido-thermophilic archaeon Thermoplasma acidophilum. Like all members of the Thermoplasmatales, T. acidophilum harbours a HU family protein, HTa, that is highly expressed and protects - like histones but unlike well-characterized bacterial HU proteins – a sizeable fraction of the genome from MNase digestion. Comparing HTa-based chromatin architecture to that of three histone-encoding archaea, Methanothermus fervidus, Haloferax volcanii, and Thermococcus kodakkarensis, we present evidence that HTa is an archaeal histone analog. HTa-protected fragments are GC-rich, display histone-like mono- and dinucleotide patterns around the dyad, exhibit relatively invariant positioning throughout the growth cycle, and show archaeal histone-like oligomerization dynamics. Our results suggest that HTa, a DNA-binding protein of bacterial origin, has converged onto an architectural role filled by histones in other archaea.
Project description:Histones are a principal constituent of chromatin in eukaryotes and fundamental to our understanding of eukaryotic gene regulation. In archaea, histones are phylogenetically widespread but not universal: several archaeal lineages have independently lost histone genes. What prompted or facilitated these losses and how archaea without histones organize their chromatin remains largely unknown. Here, we use micrococcal nuclease digestion of native and reconstituted chromatin to elucidate primary chromatin architecture in an archaeon without histones, the acido-thermophilic archaeon Thermoplasma acidophilum. We confirm and extend prior results showing that T. acidophilum harbours a HU family protein, HTa, that protects part of the genome from MNase digestion. Charting HTa-based chromatin architecture in vitro, in vivo and in an HTa-expressing E. coli strain, we present evidence that HTa is an archaeal histone analog. HTa-protected fragments are GC-rich, display histone-like mono- and dinucleotide patterns around a conspicuous dyad, exhibit relatively invariant positioning throughout the growth cycle, and show archaeal histone-like oligomerization behaviour. Our results suggest that HTa, a DNA-binding protein of bacterial origin, has converged onto an architectural role filled by histones in other archaea.
