Histone acetylation and methylation at sites initiating divergent polycistronic transcription in Trypanosoma cruzi.

ABSTRACT: Trypanosomes are ancient eukaryotic parasites in which the protein-coding genes, organized in large polycistronic clusters on both strands, are transcribed from as yet unidentified promoters. In an effort to reveal transcriptional initiation sites, we examined the Trypanosoma cruzi genome for histone modification patterns shown to be linked to active genes in various organisms. Here, we show that acetylated and methylated histones were found to be enriched at strand switch regions of divergent gene arrays, not at convergent clusters or intra- and intergenic regions within clusters. The modified region showed a bimodular profile with two peaks centered over the 5'-regions of the gene pair flanking the strand switch region. This pattern, which demarcates polycistronic transcription units ori

SUBMITTER: Respuela P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3259629 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature