Project description:In yeast cells, preferential accessibility of the HIS3-PET56 promoter region is determined by a general property of the DNA sequence, not by defined sequence elements. In vivo, this region is largely devoid of nucleosomes, and accessibility is directly related to reduced histone density. The HIS3-PET56 and DED1 promoter regions associate poorly with histones in vitro, indicating that intrinsic nucleosome positioning and stability is a major determinant of preferential accessibility. Specific and genome-wide analyses indicate that low nucleosome density is a very common feature of yeast promoter regions that correlates poorly with transcriptional activation. Thus, the yeast genome is organized into structurally distinct promoter and non-promoter regions, whose DNA sequences inherently differ with respect to nucleosome formation. This organization ensures that transcription factors bind preferentially to appropriate sites in promoters, rather than to the excess of irrelevant sites in non-promoter regions. Keywords: other
Project description:We assess the role of intrinsic histone-DNA interactions by mapping nucleosomes assembled in vitro on genomic DNA. Nucleosomes strongly prefer yeast DNA over E. coli DNA, indicating that the yeast genome evolved to favor nucleosome formation. Many yeast promoter and terminator regions intrinsically disfavor nucleosome formation, and nucleosomes assembled in vitro display strong rotational positioning. Nucleosome arrays generated by the ACF assembly factor display fewer nucleosome-free regions, reduced rotational positioning, and less translational positioning than obtained by intrinsic histone-DNA interactions. Importantly, in vitro assembled nucleosomes display only a limited preference for specific translational positions and do not show the pattern observed in vivo. Our results argue against a genomic code for nucleosome positioning, and they suggest that the nucleosomal pattern in coding regions arises primarily from statistical positioning from a barrier near the promoter that involves some aspect of transcriptional initiation by RNA polymerase II.
Project description:The S. cerevisiae Rpd3 large (Rpd3L) and small (Rpd3S) histone deacetylase (HDAC) complexes are prototypes for understanding transcriptional repression in eukaryotes [1]. The current view is that they function by deacetylating chromatin, thereby limiting accessibility of transcriptional factors to the underlying DNA. However, an Rpd3 catalytic mutant retains substantial repression capability when targeted to a promoter as a LexA fusion protein [2]. We investigated the HDAC-independent properties of the Rpd3 complexes biochemically and discovered a chaperone function, which promotes histone deposition onto DNA, and a novel activity, which prevents nucleosome eviction but not remodeling mediated by the ATP-dependent RSC complex. These HDAC-independent activities inhibit Pol II transcription on a nucleosomal template. The functions of the endogenous Rpd3 complexes can be recapitulated with recombinant Rpd3 core complex comprising Sin3, Rpd3, and Ume1. To test the hypothesis that Rpd3 contributes to chromatin stabilization in vivo, we measured histone H3 density genomewide and found that it was reduced at promoters in an Rpd3 deletion mutant but partially restored in a catalytic mutant. Importantly, the effects on H3 density are most apparent on RSC-enriched genes [3]. Our data suggest that the Rpd3 core complex could contribute to repression via a novel nucleosome stabilization function. H3 were ChIP'd from yeast strains and normalized to input.
Project description:Chromatin remodeling factors and histone chaperones were previously shown to cooperatively affect nucleosome assembly and disassembly processes in vitro. Here we show that S. pombe CHD remodellers, Hrp1 and Hrp3 physically interact with the histone chaperone Nap1. Genome wide analysis of Hrp1, Hrp3 and Nap1 occupancy, combined with nucleosome density measurements in respective mutants revealed that the CHD factors and Nap1 co-localized in particular to promoter regions where they remove nucleosomes near the transcriptional start site. Hrp1 and Hrp3 also regulate nucleosome density in coding regions where they have redundant roles to stimulate transcription. Previously, DNA replication dependent and independent nucleosome disassembly processes have been described. We found that nucleosome density increased in the hrp1 mutant in the absence of DNA replication. Finally, regions where nucleosome density increased in hrp1, hrp3 and nap1 mutants also showed nucleosome density and histone modification changes in HDAC and HAT mutants. Thus, this study revealed an important in vivo role for CHD remodellers and Nap1 in nucleosome disassembly at promoters and coding regions, which are linked to changes in histone acetylation. Keywords: ChIP on CHIP and expression profiling
Project description:The yeast Ssn6-Tup1 complex regulates gene expression through a variety of mechanisms, including positioning of nucleosomes over promoters of some target genes to limit accessibility to the transcription machinery. To further define the functions of Ssn6-Tup1 in gene regulation and chromatin remodeling, we performed genome-wide profiling of changes in nucleosome organization and gene expression that occur upon loss of SSN6 or TUP1, and observed extensive nucleosome alterations in both promoters and gene bodies of derepressed genes. Our improved nucleosome profiling and analysis approaches revealed low-occupancy promoter nucleosomes (P nucleosomes) at locations previously defined as nucleosome-free regions. In the absence of SSN6 or TUP1, this P nucleosome is frequently lost, whereas nucleosomes are gained at -1 and +1 positions, accompanying up-regulation of downstream genes. Our analysis of public ChIP-seq data revealed that Ssn6 and Tup1 preferentially bind TATA-containing promoters, which are also enriched in genes derepressed upon loss of SSN6 or TUP1. These results suggest that stabilization of the P nucleosome on TATA-containing promoters may be a central feature of the repressive chromatin architecture created by the Ssn6-Tup1 corepressor, and that releasing the P nucleosome contributes to gene activation. Genome-wide expression profiling Yeast gene expression in three cell type, Each cell type is tested in duplicate.
Project description:In yeast, histone H3/H4 exchange independent of replication is poorly understood. Here, we analyzed the deposition of histone H3 molecules, synthesized during G1, using a high-density microarray histone exchange assay. While we found that H3 exchange in coding regions requires high levels of transcription, promoters exchange H3 molecules in absence of transcription. In inactive promoters, H3 is deposited predominantly in well-positioned nucleosomes surrounding nucleosome free regions, indicating that some nucleosomes in promoters are dynamic. This could facilitate induction of repressed genes. Importantly, we show that histone H3 K56 acetylation, a replication-associated mark, is also present in replication-independent newly assembled nucleosomes and correlates perfectly with the deposition of new H3. Finally, we found that transcription-dependent incorporation of H3 at promoters is highly dependent on Asf1. Taken together our data underline the dynamic nature of replication-independent nucleosome assembly/disassembly, specify a link to transcription and implicate Asf1 and H3 K56 acetylation. Keywords: ChIP-chip
Project description:Chromatin accessibility plays a fundamental role in gene regulation. One mechanism to regulate accessibility is nucleosome placement, which is often measured by quantifying protection of DNA from enzymatic digestion. We introduce a metric that uses micrococcal nuclease (MNase) digestion in a novel manner to measure chromatin accessibility by combining information from several digests of increasing depths. This metric, MACC, quantifies the inherent heterogeneity of nucleosome accessibility in which some nucleosomes are seen preferentially at high MNase and some at low MNase. MACC interrogates each genomic locus, measuring both location of nucleosomes and accessibility to MNase in the same assay. MACC can be performed either with or without a histone immunoprecipitation step, and thereby compares behavior of nucleosomes to that of non-histone proteins. We find that enhancers, promoters and other regulatory regions have changes in accessibility that do not correlate with changes in nucleosome occupancy. Moreover, we show that high nucleosome occupancy does not necessarily preclude high accessibility, revealing novel principles of chromatin regulation.
Project description:Nucleosomes in active chromatin are dynamic, but whether they have distinct structural conformations is unknown. To identify nucleosomes with alternative structures genome-wide, we used H4S47C-anchored cleavage mapping, which revealed that nucleosomes at 5% of budding yeast nucleosome positions have asymmetric histone-DNA interactions. These asymmetric interactions are enriched at nucleosome positions that flank promoters. Micrococcal nuclease (MNase) sequence-based profiles of asymmetric nucleosome positions revealed a corresponding asymmetry in MNase protection near the dyad axis, suggesting that the loss of DNA contacts around H4S47 is accompanied by protection of the DNA from MNase. Chromatin immunoprecipitation mapping of selected nucleosome remodelers indicated that asymmetric nucleosomes are bound by the RSC chromatin remodeling complex, which is required for maintaining nucleosomes at asymmetric positions. These results imply that the asymmetric nucleosome-RSC complex is a metastable intermediate representing partial unwrapping and protection of nucleosomal DNA on one side of the dyad axis during chromatin remodeling. We have analyzed the chromatin landscape of the yeast genome using paired-end MNase-seq and the chromatin binding of yeast remodelers Swr1, Ino80 and RSC at base-pair resolution using native chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing (N-ChIP-seq).
Project description:Faithful DNA replication is essential for normal cell division and differentiation. In eukaryotic cells, DNA replication takes place on chromatin. This poses the critical question as to how DNA replication can progress through chromatin, which is inhibitory to all DNA-dependent processes. Here, we have developed a novel genome-wide method to measure chromatin accessibility to micrococcal nuclease that is normalized for nucleosome density, NCAM (Normalized Chromatin Accessibility to MNase) assay. This method enabled us to discover that chromatin accessibility increases specifically at and ahead of DNA replication forks in normal S phase and during replication stress. We further found that Mec1, a key regulatory ATR-like kinase in the S-phase checkpoint, is required for both normal chromatin accessibility around replication forks and replication fork rate during replication stress. In this study we sought to analyze the chromatin structural changes that take place at sites of DNA replication. To this end, we obtained yeast cell populations synchronously undergoing DNA replication by M-NM-1-factor G1 arrest and release. In order to analyze chromatin structure at sites of DNA replication we first mapped the genomic locations undergoing DNA replication to high-resolution, strand-specific microarrays tiling chromosomes III, VI, and XII, covering ~14% of the genome. Two complementary approaches were taken: (1) we mapped fork positions by chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) of a FLAG-tagged DNA polymerase 1 (Pol1), a replication fork component and (2) we mapped the sites of active DNA synthesis by generating DNA copy number profiles. We then analyzed chromatin structure at the sites of DNA replication by Micrococcal nuclease mononucleosome mapping and by generating histone H3 density maps. We further generated a Normalized Chromatin Accessibility to MNase (NCAM) signal by normalizing MNase mononucleosome signal for histone H3 density. NCAM signal represents a measure of nucleosome accessibility to MNase that is normalized for nucleosome content. These three approaches allowed us to assess potential changes in nucleosome positioning, nucleosome density, and nucleosome accessibility during DNA replication. We searched for changes in chromatin structure by comparing, during S phase, regions undergoing DNA replication to those not yet replicated, and also by comparing the same region before replication (not replicated, G1 arrested control) and during DNA replication in S phase. We typically harvested S phase cells at 30 or 60 minutes after release from G1 arrest. Experimental conditions included releasing cells into rich media at 24M-BM-0C or into rich media containing 200 mM Hydroxyurea (HU). Both conditions slowed down replication fork rate and made these experiments feasible. For each strain, samples for the different experiments (Chromatin for Pol1 and H3 ChIP, in vivo MNase digestion, and DNA for DNA copy number profiles) were harvested simultaneously for each time point. Therefore, comparisons between time points for each strain must be made using samples from the same replicate experiment. Our analysis included WT cells, as well as S phase checkpoint mutants (M-NM-^Tmec1 M-NM-^Tsml1 and mec1-100 M-NM-^Tsml1), as well as control strains (M-NM-^Tsml1).
Project description:Epigenetic modifications and nucleosome positioning play an important role in modulating gene expression. However, how the patterns of epigenetic modifications and nucleosome positioning are established around promoters is not well understood. Here, we have addressed these questions in a series of genome-wide experiments coupled to a novel bioinformatic analysis approach. Our data reveal a clear correlation between CpG density, promoter activity and accumulation of active or repressive histone marks. CGI boundaries define the chromatin promoter regions that will be epigenetically modified. CpG-rich promoters are targeted by histone modifications and histone variants, while CpG-poor promoters are regulated by DNA methylation. CGIs boundaries, but not transcriptional activity, are essential determinants of H2A.Z positioning in vicinity of the promoters, suggesting that the presence of H2A.Z is not related to transcriptional control. Accordingly, H2A.Z depletion has no impact on gene expression of arrested mouse embryonic fibroblasts. Therefore, the underlying DNA sequence, the promoter CpG density and, to a lesser extent, transcriptional activity, are key factors implicated in promoter chromatin architecture.