Project description:Nucleosome organization exhibits dynamic properties depending on the cell state and environment. Histone proteins, fundamental components of nucleosomes, are subject to chemical modifications on particular residues. We examined the effect of substituting modifiable residues of four core histones with the non-modifiable residue alanine on nucleosome dynamics. We mapped the genome-wide nucleosomes in 22 histone mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and compared the nucleosome alterations relative to the wild-type strain. Our results indicated that different types of histone mutation resulted in different phenotypes and a distinct reorganization of nucleosomes. Nucleosome occupancy was altered at telomeres, but not at centromeres. The first nucleosomes upstream (-1) and downstream (+1) of the transcription start site (TSS) were more dynamic than other nucleosomes. Mutations in histones affected the nucleosome array downstream of the TSS. Highly expressed genes, such as ribosome genes and genes involved in glycolysis, showed increased nucleosome occupancy in many types of histone mutant. In particular, the H3K56A mutant exhibited a high percentage of dynamic genomic regions, decreased nucleosome occupancy at telomeres, increased occupancy at the +1 and -1 nucleosomes, and a slow growth phenotype under stress conditions. Our findings provide insight into the influence of histone mutations on nucleosome dynamics.
Project description:When challenged with osmotic shock, Saccharomyces cerevisiae induces hundreds of genes, despite a concurrent reduction in overall transcriptional capacity. The stress-responsive MAP kinase Hog1 activates expression of specific genes through interactions with chromatin remodeling enzymes, transcription factors, and RNA polymerase II. However, it is not clear whether Hog1 is involved more globally in modulating the cell's transcriptional program during stress, in addition to activating specific genes. Here we show that large-scale redistribution of RNA Pol II from housekeeping to stress genes requires Hog1. We demonstrate that decreased RNA Pol II occupancy is the default outcome for highly expressed genes upon stress and that Hog1 is partially required for this effect. We find that Hog1 and RNA Pol II colocalize to open reading frames that bypass global transcriptional repression. These activation targets are specified by promoter binding of two osmotic stress-responsive transcription factors. The combination of reduced global transcription with a gene-specific override mechanism allows cells to rapidly switch their transcriptional program in response to stress.
Project description:Sln1p is a plasma membrane-localized two-component histidine kinase that functions as an osmotic stress sensor in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Changes in osmotic pressure modulate Sln1p kinase activity, which, together with Ypd1p, a phosphorelay intermediate, changes the phosphorylation status of two response regulators, Ssk1p and Skn7p. Ssk1p controls the activity of the HOG1 mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. Skn7p is a nuclearly localized transcription factor that regulates genes involved in cell wall integrity and other processes. Subcellular compartmentalization may therefore play an important role in eukaryotic two-component pathway regulation. We have studied the subcellular localization of SLN1 pathway components and find that Ypd1p is a dynamic protein with a role in shuttling the osmotic stress signal from Sln1p to Ssk1p in the cytosol and to Skn7p in the nucleus. The need to translocate the signal into different intracellular compartments contributes a spatial dimension to eukaryotic two-component pathways compared to the prototypical two-component pathways of prokaryotes.
Project description:Hyperosmotic stress yields reprogramming of gene expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells. Most of this response is orchestrated by Hog1, a stress-activated, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) homologous to human p38. We investigated, on a genomic scale, the contribution of changes in transcription rates and mRNA stabilities to the modulation of mRNA amounts during the response to osmotic stress in wild-type and hog1 mutant cells. Mild osmotic shock induces a broad mRNA destabilization; however, osmo-mRNAs are up-regulated by increasing both transcription rates and mRNA half-lives. In contrast, mild or severe osmotic stress in hog1 mutants, or severe osmotic stress in wild-type cells, yields global mRNA stabilization and sequestration of mRNAs into P-bodies. After adaptation, the absence of Hog1 affects the kinetics of P-bodies disassembly and the return of mRNAs to translation. Our results indicate that regulation of mRNA turnover contributes to coordinate gene expression upon osmotic stress, and that there are both specific and global controls of mRNA stability depending on the strength of the osmotic stress.
Project description:BACKGROUND: Specific histone modifications play important roles in chromatin functions; i.e., activation or repression of gene transcription. This participation must occur as a dynamic process. Nevertheless, most of the histone modification maps reported to date provide only static pictures that link certain modifications with active or silenced states. This study, however, focuses on the global histone modification variation that occurs in response to the transcriptional reprogramming produced by a physiological perturbation in yeast. RESULTS: We did a genome-wide chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis for eight specific histone modifications before and after saline stress. The most striking change was rapid acetylation loss in lysines 9 and 14 of H3 and in lysine 8 of H4, associated with gene repression. The genes activated by saline stress increased the acetylation levels at these same sites, but this acetylation process was quantitatively minor if compared to that of the deacetylation of repressed genes. The changes in the tri-methylation of lysines 4, 36 and 79 of H3 and the di-methylation of lysine 79 of H3 were slighter than those of acetylation. Furthermore, we produced new genome-wide maps for seven histone modifications, and we analyzed, for the first time in S. cerevisiae, the genome-wide profile of acetylation of lysine 8 of H4. CONCLUSIONS: This research reveals that the short-term changes observed in the post-stress methylation of histones are much more moderate than those of acetylation, and that the dynamics of the acetylation state of histones during activation or repression of transcription is a much quicker process than methylation.
Project description:In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, transcriptional silencing occurs at three classes of genomic regions: near the telomeres, at the silent mating type loci, and within the ribosomal DNA (rDNA) repeats. In all three cases, silencing depends upon several factors, including specific types of histone modifications. In this work we have investigated the roles in silencing for Spt10 and Spt21, two proteins previously shown to control transcription of particular histone genes. Building on a recent study showing that Spt10 is required for telomeric silencing, our results show that in both spt10 and spt21 mutants, silencing is reduced near telomeres and at HML?, while it is increased at the rDNA. Both spt10 and spt21 mutations cause modest effects on Sir protein recruitment and histone modifications at telomeric regions, and they cause significant changes in chromatin structure, as judged by its accessibility to dam methylase. These silencing and chromatin changes are not seen upon deletion of HTA2-HTB2, the primary histone locus regulated by Spt10 and Spt21. These results suggest that Spt10 and Spt21 control silencing in S. cerevisiae by altering chromatin structure through roles beyond the control of histone gene expression.
Project description:Based on the prediction that histone lysine demethylases may contain the JmjC domain, we examined the methylation patterns of five knock-out strains (ecm5Delta, gis1Delta, rph1Delta, jhd1Delta, and jhd2Delta (yjr119cDelta)) of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Mass spectrometry (MS) analyses of histone H3 showed increased modifications in all mutants except ecm5Delta. High-resolution MS was used to unequivocally differentiate trimethylation from acetylation in various tryptic fragments. The relative abundance of specific fragments indicated that histones K36me3 and K4me3 accumulate in rph1Delta and jhd2Delta strains, respectively, whereas both histone K36me2 and K36me accumulate in gis1Delta and jhd1Delta strains. Analyses performed with strains overexpressing the JmjC proteins yielded changes in methylation patterns that were the reverse of those obtained in the complementary knock-out strains. In vitro enzymatic assays confirmed that the JmjC domain of Rph1 specifically demethylates K36me3 primarily and K36me2 secondarily. Overexpression of RPH1 generated a growth defect in response to UV irradiation. The demethylase activity of Rph1 is responsible for the phenotype. Collectively, in addition to Jhd1, our results identified three novel JmjC domain-containing histone demethylases and their sites of action in budding yeast S. cerevisiae. Furthermore, the methodology described here will be useful for identifying histone demethylases and their target sites in other organisms.
Project description:Histone modifications are important epigenetic features of chromatin that must be replicated faithfully. However, the molecular mechanisms required to duplicate and maintain histone modification patterns in chromatin remain to be determined. Here, we show that the introduction of histone modifications into newly deposited nucleosomes depends upon their location in the chromosome. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, newly deposited nucleosomes consisting of newly synthesized histone H3-H4 tetramers are distributed throughout the entire chromosome. Methylation of lysine 4 on histone H3 (H3-K4), a hallmark of euchromatin, is introduced into these newly deposited nucleosomes, regardless of whether the neighboring preexisting nucleosomes harbor the K4 mutation in histone H3. Furthermore, if the heterochromatin-binding protein Sir3 is unavailable during DNA replication, histone H3-K4 methylation is introduced onto newly deposited nucleosomes in telomeric heterochromatin. Thus, a conservative distribution model most accurately explains the inheritance of histone modifications because the location of histones within euchromatin or heterochromatin determines which histone modifications are introduced.
Project description:The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a platform organism for bioethanol production from various feedstocks and robust strains are desirable for efficient fermentation because yeast cells inevitably encounter stressors during the process. Recently, diverse S. cerevisiae lineages were identified, which provided novel resources for understanding stress tolerance variations and related shaping factors in the yeast. This study characterized the tolerance of diverse S. cerevisiae strains to the stressors of high ethanol concentrations, temperature shocks, and osmotic stress. The results showed that the isolates from human-associated environments overall presented a higher level of stress tolerance compared with those from forests spared anthropogenic influences. Statistical analyses indicated that the variations of stress tolerance were significantly correlated with both ecological sources and geographical locations of the strains. This study provides guidelines for selection of robust S. cerevisiae strains for bioethanol production from nature.
Project description:To enhance the growth performance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae under osmotic stress, mutant XCG001, which tolerates up to 1.5 M NaCl, was isolated through adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE). Comparisons of the transcriptome data of mutant XCG001 and the wild-type strain identified ELO2 as being associated with osmotic tolerance. In the ELO2 overexpression strain (XCG010), the contents of inositol phosphorylceramide (IPC; t18:0/26:0), mannosylinositol phosphorylceramide [MIPC; t18:0/22:0(2OH)], MIPC (d18:0/22:0), MIPC (d20:0/24:0), mannosyldiinositol phosphorylceramide [M(IP)2C; d20:0/26:0], M(IP)2C [t18:0/26:0(2OH)], and M(IP)2C [d20:0/26:0(2OH)] increased by 88.3 times, 167 times, 63.3 times, 23.9 times, 27.9 times, 114 times, and 208 times at 1.0 M NaCl, respectively, compared with the corresponding values of the control strain XCG002. As a result, the membrane integrity, cell growth, and cell survival rate of strain XCG010 increased by 24.4% ± 1.0%, 21.9% ± 1.5%, and 22.1% ± 1.1% at 1.0 M NaCl, respectively, compared with the corresponding values of the control strain XCG002 (wild-type strain with a control plasmid). These findings provided a novel strategy for engineering complex sphingolipids to enhance osmotic tolerance.IMPORTANCE This study demonstrated a novel strategy for the manipulation of membrane complex sphingolipids to enhance S. cerevisiae tolerance to osmotic stress. Elo2, a sphingolipid acyl chain elongase, was related to osmotic tolerance through transcriptome analysis of the wild-type strain and an osmosis-tolerant strain generated from ALE. Overexpression of ELO2 increased the content of complex sphingolipid with longer acyl chain; thus, membrane integrity and osmotic tolerance improved.