Project description:The site-specific chromatin incorporation of eukaryotic histone variant H2A.Z is driven by the multi-component chromatin remodeling complex SWR1/SRCAP/ p400. The budding yeast SWR1 complex replaces the H2A-H2B dimer in the canonical nucleosome with the H2A.Z-H2B dimer, but the mechanism governing the directionality of H2A-to-H2A.Z exchange remains elusive. Here, we use single-molecule force spectroscopy to dissect the disassembly/ reassembly of H2A-nucleosome and H2A.Z-nucleosome. We find that the N-terminal 1-135 residues of yeast SWR1-complex-protein-2 (previously termed Swc2-Z) facilitate the disassembly of nucleosomes containing H2A but not H2A.Z. The Swc2-mediated nucleosome disassembly/reassembly requires the inherently unstable H2A-nucleosome, whose instability is conferred by three H2A α2-helix residues Gly47, Pro49 and Ile63 as they selectively weaken the structural rigidity of H2A-H2B dimer. It also requires Swc2-ZN (residues 1-37) that directly anchors to H2A-nucleosome and functions in the SWR1-catalyzed H2A.Z replacement in vitro and yeast H2A.Z deposition in vivo. Our findings providecrucial insights into how SWR1 complex discriminates between the H2A-nucleosome and H2A.Z-nucleosome, establishing a simple paradigm for the governace of unidirectional H2A.Z exchange.
Project description:We present Micrococcal Nuclease digestion maps of S. cerevisiae through the progression of the Yeast Metabolic Cycle. We demonstrate that nucleosome positions at many promoters are dynamic, and remodeling events at promoters have significant consequences with respect to gene expression. Examination of nucleosome positions and transcriptional output through metabolic oscillations in budding yeast.
Project description:RNAi, a gene-silencing pathway triggered by double-stranded RNA, is conserved in diverse eukaryotic species but has been lost in the model budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We report that RNAi is present in other budding-yeast species, including Saccharomyces castellii and Candida albicans. These species use noncanonical Dicer proteins to generate siRNAs, which mostly correspond to transposable elements and Y´ subtelomeric repeats. In S. castellii, RNAi mutants are viable but have excess Y´ mRNA levels. In S. cerevisiae, introducing Dicer and Argonaute of S. castellii restores RNAi, and the reconstituted pathway silences endogenous retrotransposons. These results identify a novel class of Dicer proteins, bring the tool of RNAi to the study of budding yeasts, and bring the tools of budding yeast to the study of RNAi.
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: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.
Project description:DNA topoisomerases are known to promote transcription in prokaryotes by removing excessive DNA supercoils produced during elongation. However, it is unclear how topoisomerases in eukaryotes are recruited and function in the transcription pathway in the context of nucleosomes. To address this problem we present high-resolution genome wide maps of one of the major eukaryotic topoisomerases, Topoisomerase II (Top2) and nucleosomes in the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Our data indicate that at promoters Top2 binds primarily to DNA that is nucleosome free. However, while nucleosome loss enables Top2 occupancy the opposite is not the case and the loss of Top2 has little effect on nucleosome density. We also find that Top2 is involved in transcription. Not only is Top2 enriched at highly transcribed genes but Top2 is required redundantly with Top1 for optimal recruitment of RNA polymerase II at their promoters. These findings and the examination of candidate activated genes suggest that nucleosome loss induced by nucleosome remodeling factors during gene activation enable Top2 binding which in turn acts redundantly with Top1 to enhance recruitment of RNA polymerase II.