MCB
Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Nye, A. C.
Right arrow Articles by Belmont, A. S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Nye, A. C.
Right arrow Articles by Belmont, A. S.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Molecular and Cellular Biology, May 2002, p. 3437-3449, Vol. 22, No. 10
0270-7306/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/MCB.22.10.3437-3449.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Alteration of Large-Scale Chromatin Structure by Estrogen Receptor

Anne C. Nye,1 Ramji R. Rajendran,1 David L. Stenoien,2 Michael A. Mancini,2 Benita S. Katzenellenbogen,1 and Andrew S. Belmont1*

Department of Cell and Structural Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801,1 Department of Cell Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 770302

Received 19 December 2001/ Returned for modification 8 February 2002/ Accepted 18 February 2002

The estrogen receptor (ER), a member of the nuclear hormone receptor superfamily important in human physiology and disease, recruits coactivators which modify local chromatin structure. Here we describe effects of ER on large-scale chromatin structure as visualized in live cells. We targeted ER to gene-amplified chromosome arms containing large numbers of lac operator sites either directly, through a lac repressor-ER fusion protein (lac rep-ER), or indirectly, by fusing lac repressor with the ER interaction domain of the coactivator steroid receptor coactivator 1. Significant decondensation of large-scale chromatin structure, comparable to that produced by the ~150-fold-stronger viral protein 16 (VP16) transcriptional activator, was produced by ER in the absence of estradiol using both approaches. Addition of estradiol induced a partial reversal of this unfolding by green fluorescent protein-lac rep-ER but not by wild-type ER recruited by a lac repressor-SRC570-780 fusion protein. The chromatin decondensation activity did not require transcriptional activation by ER nor did it require ligand-induced coactivator interactions, and unfolding did not correlate with histone hyperacetylation. Ligand-induced coactivator interactions with helix 12 of ER were necessary for the partial refolding of chromatin in response to estradiol using the lac rep-ER tethering system. This work demonstrates that when tethered or recruited to DNA, ER possesses a novel large-scale chromatin unfolding activity.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: B107 CLSL, 601 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana, IL 61801. Phone: (217) 244-2311. Fax: (217) 244-1648. E-mail: asbel{at}uiuc.edu.

Molecular and Cellular Biology, May 2002, p. 3437-3449, Vol. 22, No. 10
0022-538X/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/MCB.22.10.3437-3449.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:



Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
J. Bacteriol. J. Virol. Eukaryot. Cell
Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. Clin. Vaccine Immunol. All ASM Journals

Copyright © 2002 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.