Molecular and Cellular Biology, March 1999, p. 2088-2097, Vol. 19, No. 3
0270-7306/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 021141; Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 021152; and Graduate Program, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 465563
Received 19 August 1998/Returned for modification 8 October 1998/Accepted 13 December 1998
| |
ABSTRACT |
|---|
|
|
|---|
The histone N-terminal tails have been shown previously to be important for chromatin assembly, remodeling, and stability. We have tested the ability of human SWI-SNF (hSWI-SNF) to remodel nucleosomes whose tails have been cleaved through a limited trypsin digestion. We show that hSWI-SNF is able to remodel tailless mononucleosomes and nucleosomal arrays, although hSWI-SNF remodeling of tailless nucleosomes is less effective than remodeling of nucleosomes with tails. Analogous to previous observations with tailed nucleosomal templates, we show both (i) that hSWI-SNF-remodeled trypsinized mononucleosomes and arrays are stable for 30 min in the remodeled conformation after removal of ATP and (ii) that the remodeled tailless mononucleosome can be isolated on a nondenaturing acrylamide gel as a novel species. Thus, nucleosome remodeling by hSWI-SNF can occur via interactions with a tailless nucleosome core.
| |
INTRODUCTION |
|---|
|
|
|---|
In eukaryotic cells, DNA is compacted into chromatin, the central unit of which is the nucleosome. The nucleosome consists of an octamer of two each of the four core histones (H2A, H2B, H3, and H4) and approximately 146 bp of DNA. The core histones are small proteins (<140 amino acids), and all have a basic N-terminal tail. These tails have been shown to be important for a wide range of regulatory processes (19, 22, 34, 38, 54, 63). The importance of the H4 histone tail is also suggested by its high degree of conservation (28).
The N-terminal tails directly interact with numerous regulatory complexes. Since the histone tails are active sites for posttranslational modifications like phosphorylation, acetylation, and deacetylation (1, 5), they must interact with complexes like histone acetyltransferases (7, 30, 41, 48) and deacetylases (53, 67). Histone chaperones such as CAF-1 interact primarily with acetylated histones (60), and repressive complexes such as the SIR complex in S. cerevisiae are believed to form structures on nucleosomes by binding the histone tails (21). These studies and others have led to the notion that the tails provide an essential handle for manipulating the nucleosome.
The histone tails were not resolved by the recent crystal structure of the nucleosome (37), implying that they protrude from the nucleosome in an unstructured manner. Early experiments demonstrated that they could be effectively cleaved from the rest of the nucleosome with trypsin (4), while other parts of the histones are protected from digestion via compaction into the nucleosome core. Limited trypsinization removes approximately 70% of the tail portion of the histones, including all of the known human acetylation sites (55). While the trypsinization procedure does not remove the entire tail, the terms trypsinized template and tailless template will be used synonymously throughout this paper for simplicity.
The purpose of this study is to examine whether histone tails are required for the activity of the human SWI-SNF (hSWI-SNF) family of ATP-dependent nucleosome remodeling complexes. Members of the SWI-SNF family of remodeling complexes have been found in yeast (10, 16, 43), Drosophila melanogaster (18, 52), and mammals (31, 51, 64). In yeast, there are two related complexes termed SWI-SNF and RSC (12). Each of these complexes has more than 10 subunits, 6 of which are highly related to each other in their primary sequences (9, 11, 13, 32, 44). In humans, the SWI-SNF family has been defined as those complexes that have either Brg1 or hBrm as a central DNA-dependent ATPase. Brg1 and hBrm both have a high degree of similarity to the yeast SWI2-SNF2 subunit (14, 29, 39) and the STH1 subunit of RSC (12). Purified hSWI-SNF preparations also contain proteins with a high degree of similarity to three other members of the yeast SWI-SNF and RSC complexes and contain at least eight total peptides (51, 64, 65). It now appears that hSWI-SNF preparations may contain heterogeneous populations of highly related complexes having many of the same subunits and similar activities in nucleosome remodeling assays.
SWI-SNF complexes have been shown to increase the binding of transcription factors (8, 16, 23, 49), alter the nucleosomal DNase cleavage pattern (16, 31), and increase restriction enzyme cleavage of nucleosomal DNA (35, 49, 56). Recent studies have isolated a stable remodeled form of the nucleosome that can form as a consequence of hSWI-SNF (49) or yeast RSC (36) function. Based on these findings, it has been proposed that the SWI-SNF complexes function by using the energy of ATP hydrolysis to interconvert nucleosomes between their normal structure and a remodeled structure that has an altered DNA path.
A second family of ATP-dependent remodeling complexes has been characterized primarily in Drosophila and contains the ISWI protein as the ATPase subunit (57). One member of this family, the NURF complex (58), has been shown to require histone N termini for remodeling (20). In contrast, we report here that hSWI-SNF does not require histone N termini to remodel nucleosomes. This provides an important mechanistic distinction between NURF and hSWI-SNF and suggests that the SWI-SNF family of complexes are able to remodel nucleosome structure via interactions with the tailless nucleosome core.
| |
MATERIALS AND METHODS |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Purification of hSWI-SNF. hSWI-SNF was purified as described previously (51). Briefly, approximately 50 mg of nuclear extract (3) from Flag-tagged Ini1 HeLa cell lines was incubated 10 to 14 h at 4°C with 1 ml of anti-Flag antibody beads (Kodak, Inc.). The beads were washed with 5 column volumes of BC150 (150 mM KCl, 20% glycerol, 20 mM HEPES [pH 7.9], 0.2 mM EDTA, 0.5 mM dithiothreitol [DTT], 0.2 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride [PMSF]), then were washed with 5 column volumes of BC300 (300 mM KCl, 20% glycerol, 20 mM HEPES [pH 7.9], 0.2 mM EDTA, 0.5 mM DTT, 0.2 mM PMSF), and finally were washed with 3 column volumes of BC100 (100 mM KCl, 20% glycerol, 20 mM HEPES [pH 7.9], 0.2 mM EDTA, 0.5 mM DTT, 0.2 mM PMSF). The column was incubated for 1 h with 20-fold molar excess Flag peptide (Kodak, Inc.) in BC100. Eluted hSWI-SNF was quantified by a Bradford assay, and purity was judged to be 50% by silver stain analysis.
Purification of nucleosomes, trypsinized nucleosomes, histones, and trypsinized histones. H1-depleted HeLa nucleosomes were prepared and quantitated as described previously (17, 49, 61), with the exception that nuclei extracted by a Dignam procedure were used as the starting material.
Trypsinized nucleosomes were made essentially as described previously (2). This involved digesting polynucleosomes (0.5 µg/µl) in buffer V (25 mM NaCl, 10 mM Tris-HCl [pH 8.0], 1 mM EDTA) with trypsin (6.7 ng/µl; Sigma, Inc.) at room temperature for 20 to 40 min. The trypsinization reaction was stopped with 20-fold excess (wt/wt) soybean trypsin inhibitor (Sigma, Inc.), and the reaction was monitored by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Quantitation of nucleosomes is given as the DNA concentration. HeLa histones were purified via hydroxyapatite chromatography as described previously (66). Trypsinized histones were prepared by creating a stock of trypsinized nucleosomes and then purifying the histones from the DNA, trypsin, and inhibitor via hydroxyapatite chromatography as described previously (66), with the exceptions that binding of the nucleosomes to the hydroxyapatite (Bio-Rad, Inc.) and washing of the column was done in LSB (75 mM NaCl, 50 mM NaH2PO4 [pH 6.8], 0.5 mM PMSF).Reconstitution and purification of labeled mononucleosomes.
The template designated TPT (49) is 155 bp long and contains
a rotational positioning sequence. This template was end labeled with a
Klenow fill-in reaction either at the EcoRI end, using [
-32P]dATP (NEN Life Sciences, Inc.), or at the
MluI end, using [
-32P]dCTP (NEN Life
Sciences, Inc.). Free nucleotides were removed through a Sephadex G-50
(Pharmacia, Inc.) spin column, the DNA was ethanol precipitated, and
the fragment was assembled into nucleosomes by the histone octamer
transfer reaction (45). To assemble tailed nucleosomes,
90-fold excess tailed donor nucleosomes were used; to make trypsinized
mononucleosomes, 26-fold excess tailless donors were used. Assembly was
monitored on a 5% nondenaturing acrylamide gel. After assembly, the
assembled nucleosomes were purified on a 5 to 30% glycerol gradient
(glycerol, 50 mM Tris-HCl [pH 7.5], 1 mM EDTA, bovine serum albumin
[BSA] [0.1 mg/ml]) run at 110,000 × g in a Beckman
SW55 rotor for 10 to 14 h at 4°C.
Mononucleosome DNase I accessibility assay. All reactions were carried out with 5.7 ng of total nucleosomal DNA unless otherwise noted. Of that, 0.3 ng was end-labeled nucleosomes and 5.4 ng was unlabeled nucleosomes of similar status (tailed or tailless). For the nucleosome titration experiment shown in Fig. 3B, up to 400 ng of unlabeled nucleosomes of similar status was used as competitor. Mononucleosome disruption reactions were carried out in 25 µl of reaction buffer (72 mM KCl, 15 mM HEPES [pH 7.9], 10 mM Tris-HCl [pH 7.5], 15% glycerol, 3.5 mM MgCl2, 0.3 mM DTT, 0.3 mM EDTA, 0.1 mM PMSF, BSA [20 µg/ml]) with up to 150 ng of hSWI-SNF for 30 min at 30°C in the presence or absence of 0.5 mM ATP. Tailed nucleosomes were then digested for 2 min with 0.2 U of DNase I (diluted with 25 mM CaCl2, 20 mM Tris-HCl [pH 8.0], 5 mM NaCl, 2.5% glycerol), tailless nucleosomes were digested for 2 min with 0.05 U of DNase I, and free DNA was digested for 2 min with 0.02 U of DNase I. For assays with higher amounts of nucleosomal competitor (see Fig. 3B), DNase I digestion times were increased up to 8 min. The digestion was stopped with 2 µl of 0.5 M EDTA, pH 8.0. The samples were phenol extracted, ethanol precipitated, and separated on 8% urea sequencing gels as described previously (25).
Mononucleosome PstI restriction enzyme accessibility assay. Reactions were reconstituted exactly as per the DNase I accessibility assays, but instead of incubating at 30°C for 30 min, the remodeling reaction was allowed to proceed up to 60 min. Afterwards, 1 µl of PstI (20 or 50 U/µl) was added and the reaction was allowed to incubate for an additional 30 min. The reactions were then phenol extracted, ethanol precipitated, separated on an 8% urea sequencing gel, and quantified with a Molecular Dynamics PhosphorImager.
Reconstitution of labeled nucleosomal arrays and the plasmid
supercoiling assay.
An internally labeled plasmid was prepared as
described previously (51) by linearizing pSAB8
(6) with EcoRI. Briefly, the plasmid was then
alkaline phosphatase (NEB, Inc.) treated and kinased with T4
polynucleotide kinase (NEB, Inc.) and [
-32P]ATP (NEN
Life Sciences, Inc.). Labeled plasmid was separated from unincorporated
nucleotides with a Sephadex G-50 (Pharmacia, Inc.) spin column. The
labeled linear plasmid was religated at a concentration of 1 µg/ml
with T4 DNA ligase (NEB, Inc.).
ATPase assay. Tailless polynucleosome stocks were prepared as described above. This provided tailless stocks at a DNA concentration of 0.29 mg/ml. Tailed polynucleosomes were prepared for this assay by diluting H1-depleted nucleosome stocks to a DNA concentration of 0.29 mg/ml with the same buffers used to make trypsinized stocks (trypsin was not added, but trypsin inhibitor was).
ATPase assays were carried out at 30°C in 5 µl of reaction buffer (13 mM NaHEPES [pH 7.9], 3 mM Tris-HCl [pH 8.0], 60 mM KCl, 9 mM NaCl, 7 mM MgCl2, 6% glycerol, 0.6 mM DTT, 0.3 mM EDTA, 2 µM unlabeled ATP, 30 nM [
-32P]ATP) with 12 ng of
hSWI-SNF per µl (6 nM) and 4 ng of tailed or tailless nucleosomes per
µl (~40 nM). Reactions were initiated by the addition of ATP and
MgCl2. At specific times after initiating the reaction,
1-µl aliquots were quenched in 2 µl of stop solution (3% SDS, 100 mM EDTA, 50 mM Tris-HCl [pH 7.5]). Each time point was spotted onto
polyethyleneimine-cellulose thin-layer chromatography (TLC) plates (JT
Baker, Inc.), which had been prerun in distilled water and dried.
Inorganic phosphate was separated from unreacted ATP by running the TLC
plates in 0.5 M LiCl and 1 M formic acid. The ratio of inorganic
phosphate to ATP was quantified with a Molecular Dynamics PhosphorImager.
Apyrase experiments. The DNase I mononucleosome assay and the plasmid supercoiling experiments were modified to include apyrase. Apyrase (Sigma, Inc.) was reconstituted to stock concentrations of both 1 and 0.5 U/µl in 20 mM HEPES (pH 7.9)-1 mM MgCl2-1 mM DTT-1 mM EDTA-BSA (1 mg/ml). For both the DNase I and the PstI mononucleosome assays, reactions were reconstituted as described above. One unit of apyrase was then added either before or after incubating at 30°C for 30 min (to test apyrase activity or remodeling stability, respectively). After adding apyrase, the reaction mixture was reincubated at 30°C for the indicated times (0 to 30 min) before treating with DNase I. The remainder of the procedure was performed as described above.
For the plasmid supercoiling experiment, reactions were also reconstituted as described above. Two units of apyrase were then added either before or after incubating at 30°C for 30 min (to test apyrase activity or remodeling stability, respectively). After adding apyrase, the reaction mixture was reincubated at 30°C for the indicated times (30 to 90 min) before deproteinizing and analyzing on a 1.75% agarose gel were performed as described above.Gel shift of the novel species. Glycerol gradient purified mononucleosomes (tailed or tailless) were incubated in a 5-µl reaction mixture containing 1 µl of nucleosomes (~0.15 ng of DNA), 1 µl of MgCl2-H2O-ATP (35 mM MgCl2, 15 mM ATP), 2 µl of hSWI-SNF (100 ng), and 1 µl of BC100. The reaction mixture was incubated at 30°C for 55 min before the addition of 1 µl of plasmid DNA competitor (1 µg/µl). The reaction mixture was reincubated at 30°C for 15 minutes before being run on a 5% nondenaturing acrylamide gel in 1× Tris-borate-EDTA (TBE) at 4°C.
| |
RESULTS |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Chromatin remodeling complexes have been characterized by their ability to hydrolyze ATP in a nucleosome-stimulated reaction (12, 16, 46, 58, 59), to alter the topology of arrays of nucleosomes (26, 31, 58, 59), to alter DNase access to mononucleosomes (12, 31, 58), and to increase restriction enzyme access to nucleosomal DNA (35, 49, 58). We used different protocols that measure each of these properties to determine the effects of removing the tails on hSWI-SNF function. All four properties were tested, because it is not clear whether these reactions all reflect the same process or whether they reflect different reactions that are catalyzed by remodeling complexes. To perform these experiments, hSWI-SNF was affinity purified from HeLa cell lines that contain an epitope-tagged copy of Ini1 (51), the smallest subunit of the hSWI-SNF complexes. As judged by SDS-PAGE followed by silver staining, hSWI-SNF purified in this manner is at least 50% pure (Fig. 1) (49, 51). In all assays performed to date, hSWI-SNF purified in this manner retains all the characteristics of SWI-SNF purified by conventional chromatography (31).
|
hSWI-SNF remodeling of trypsinized mononucleosomes. One characteristic activity of many remodeling complexes is the ability to alter the DNase digestion pattern of a rotationally positioned mononucleosome. In the absence of remodeling, cleavage of a rotationally positioned mononucleosome by DNase results in a 10-bp periodicity of maximal and minimal cleavages (Fig. 2C, lane 2). In an ATP-dependent process, hSWI-SNF alters the cleavage pattern of a tailed mononucleosome (Fig. 2C, lanes 4 and 5).
|
|
hSWI-SNF ATPase activity on tailless templates. Although not previously reported for hSWI-SNF, yeast SWI-SNF has been shown to have a nucleosome-stimulated ATPase activity (16). We were interested in determining what effects, if any, removal of the tails would have, especially since it has been shown previously that removing the tails lowers the nucleosome-stimulated ATPase activity of the NURF chromatin-remodeling complex (20). Nucleosomal arrays were used as substrates in the reaction and were either prepared by digestion with trypsin as described above or mock treated in parallel reactions. The ability of these arrays to stimulate ATP-hydrolysis by hSWI-SNF was then measured. After various times of incubation of hSWI-SNF and nucleosomes, ATP and inorganic phosphate were separated by TLC and the amounts of each were quantified with a PhosphorImager. Both normal and trypsinized nucleosomes increased the rate of ATP hydrolysis by hSWI-SNF to a similar extent (Fig. 4). Thus, the tails are not required for stimulating the ATPase activity of hSWI-SNF.
|
hSWI-SNF remodeling of trypsinized nucleosomal arrays. The DNase I and restriction enzyme protocols shown in Fig. 2 and 3 measured remodeling activity on mononucleosomes. We also used arrays of nucleosomes as substrates for hSWI-SNF, both because these substrates are presumably more similar to in vivo chromatin than mononucleosomes and because histone N termini have been shown to have important effects on the biophysical properties of nucleosomal arrays (50). hSWI-SNF has been shown previously to cause significant changes in the topology of closed circular nucleosomal plasmids in an ATP-dependent reaction, resulting in a significant decrease in negative supercoiling (31, 51). We used this assay to test for effects of the histone tails.
Plasmids were assembled into nucleosomal arrays with either tailed histones or trypsinized histones by using a Xenopus heat-treated assembly extract (as described in Materials and Methods). This procedure (66) required free histones. To isolate trypsinized free histones, trypsinized nucleosomes were prepared from HeLa cells as described above, and then the tailless histones were separated from the DNA, trypsin, and inhibitor via hydroxyapatite chromatography (Fig. 5A). Control experiments showed that the assembled plasmids contained stoichiometric amounts of each of the respective trypsinized or tailed histones (data not shown).
|
Remodeled tailless mononucleosomes and nucleosomal arrays are stable in the absence of active remodeling. The experiments described above show that hSWI-SNF can remodel nucleosomes that do not have histone N termini. All experiments were performed under conditions in which hSWI-SNF was continually active, and thus these experiments did not directly address whether the presence or absence of histone tails affects the stability of the remodeled state. Previous work had shown that hSWI-SNF-modified tailed templates maintain a remodeled state for an extended period after removal of ATP and/or dissociation from SWI-SNF (15, 24, 40). We first tested to see if the tailless remodeled state was stable in the absence of ATP. The assays used were the same as those described above, with the exception that after remodeling, ATP was removed with apyrase and the remodeled templates were incubated for various times before assaying for remodeling. Since SWI-SNF activity requires ATP, SWI-SNF is not active after the addition of apyrase (Fig. 6A, lanes 5 and 6; Fig. 6B, lanes 3 and 4). Without continued SWI-SNF remodeling, an unstable intermediate would return to the unremodeled state and be detected as such.
|
Generation of a stable modified tailless mononucleosome. While the experiment in Fig. 6 shows that the remodeled state remained stable in the presence or absence of histone tails, it does not demonstrate the stability of the remodeled form when separated from hSWI-SNF. To address this, a nondenaturing acrylamide gel was run to detect a stable remodeled tailless nucleosome, similar to that seen previously for tailed mononucleosomes (49). When tailless mononucleosomes were incubated with hSWI-SNF and ATP for 55 min before competing away the bound hSWI-SNF with 1 µg of plasmid DNA, an ATP-enhanced SWI-SNF-dependent band was detected (Fig. 7A, lane 4). This novel species migrated slightly faster than the remodeled tailed conformation (Fig. 7B, compare lanes 1 and 2), which is consistent with the difference in mobility between the tailed and tailless substrates. As previously shown for the tailed mononucleosome (49), these data suggest that hSWI-SNF can also convert a tailless mononucleosome to a stable remodeled conformation.
|
| |
DISCUSSION |
|---|
|
|
|---|
The N-terminal tails are targets of histone acetylase (7, 30, 41, 48) and deacetylase (53, 67) complexes, are required for the function of the NURF chromatin-remodeling complex (20), and are believed to play an important role in repression by complexes such as the SIR complex (21). Thus, the tails frequently provide a key contact point for complexes that regulate chromatin and nucleosome structure. Our finding that the tails are not required for remodeling by hSWI-SNF both distinguishes this complex at a mechanistic level from these other complexes and raises the possibility that SWI-SNF complexes and complexes that require tails for function might be able to work together on the same nucleosome.
Remodeling by hSWI-SNF is currently believed to result from a conformational transition of the nucleosome that alters the path of the DNA as it wraps around the histones. This model is supported by observations that remodeled structures are stable in the absence of SWI-SNF contact, that remodeled nucleosomes contain the full complement of histones, and that a stable remodeled nucleosome product shows altered enzyme accessibility (36, 49). Although trypsinization does not remove the entire tail portion of the histones, the data presented here imply that the tails are not required to create this altered conformation.
The DNase I mononucleosome disruption data (Fig. 2 and 3) indicated that the path of the DNA around both the trypsinized and nontrypsinized mononucleosomes was similar. Without the tails, nucleosomes were still able to produce the characteristic 10-bp DNase I digestion pattern similar to that of tailed nucleosomes. After disruption, the DNase I patterns for both templates were remarkably similar. This implies that the DNA structure of the remodeled form is similar regardless of the status of the tails.
The remodeled structure can also be maintained in the absence of SWI-SNF on both trypsinized and nontrypsinized mononucleosomes as both substrates could form the stable modified species (Fig. 7). Stability of remodeling was also measured by removing ATP with apyrase and examining the stability of the remodeled state over time. Figure 6A shows that remodeled tailless mononucleosomes were stable in the absence of ATP for at least 30 min. Additionally, the plasmid supercoiling experiment (Fig. 6B) shows that while the trypsinized remodeled nucleosomal arrays were less stable, both the tailed and tailless templates remained in the remodeled configuration for over an hour. Thus, the tails are not required to maintain the disrupted conformation.
On mononucleosomes and arrays, hSWI-SNF was less active on trypsinized templates (Fig. 3 and 5). For the mononucleosome assays, however, less DNase (Fig. 2 and 3) and less PstI (Fig. 2) were required to cleave tailless nucleosomes than tailed nucleosomes. These and other physical characteristics of trypsinized nucleosomes have been shown previously to be different from those of tailed nucleosomes (2, 27, 33, 61). In particular, trypsinization has been shown to increase factor access towards nucleosomal DNA such that nucleases and transcription factors have greater effects on trypsinized nucleosomes. This is in contrast to remodeling by hSWI-SNF, which occurs more efficiently on nucleosomes with tails. One explanation for these observations is that SWI-SNF interacts with nucleosomes via a mechanism that is not inhibited by the histone tails and that therefore might differ from the mechanism via which other DNA-binding proteins contact the nucleosome.
Since hSWI-SNF does not require the histone tails for chromatin remodeling, what portion of the nucleosome might be contacted during SWI-SNF action? One possibility is that hSWI-SNF directly binds to the DNA and uses the energy of ATP hydrolysis to drive movement of the DNA in a manner that facilitates the transition between normal and remodeled nucleosome states (42). Unless hSWI-SNF has a method for accommodating the tails, this model could be argued against since the DNA of trypsinized nucleosomes is largely more accessible than that of tailed nucleosomes, yet the remodeling capability of hSWI-SNF is slightly less on tailless templates and the ATP hydrolysis rate remains the same. Alternatively, or in addition, SWI-SNF could directly contact portions of the core histone octamer to help facilitate this transition. The exposed histone tails, which are the most accessible protein component of the nucleosome, do not provide a necessary contact point for this reaction. Thus, if SWI-SNF requires direct interaction with nucleosomal proteins, it would be able to bind to the portions of the histones that constitute the core or that are immediately surrounded by DNA.
Many other regulatory complexes like histone acetylases and deacetylases require the tails for activity. It is possible that these complexes and SWI-SNF are able to work on the same nucleosome at the same time. In this light, it is interesting that histone deacetylases have been found to be associated with a DNA-dependent ATPase with homology to the SWI-SNF family (62) and that remodeling of nucleosome structure can facilitate histone deacetylation (56). A mechanism of this sort would clearly work more efficiently if the remodeling complex contacted different portions of the nucleosome than that required for deacetylase activity. Similar scenarios would allow remodeling complexes to work in close association with acetylation complexes. Genetic experiments have shown that components of the SAGA histone acetyltransferase complex in yeast have synthetic phenotypes with yeast SWI-SNF subunits (47), which is consistent with a concerted function of these complexes.
Finally, data presented here suggest that different complexes that remodel chromatin work by contacting different portions of the nucleosome. It has been shown previously that NURF requires the tails for remodeling activity (20), and we show that hSWI-SNF does not. This suggests that these complexes use different mechanisms to achieve the same activity. This may provide a clue as to what roles different chromatin-remodeling complexes play inside the cell.
| |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
|---|
We thank G. Schnitzler, M. Phelan, L. Corey, F. Raible, and other members of the laboratory for comments and C. Logie and C. Peterson for communicating unpublished data. We also thank M. Hirschel and J. Moquist from Cellex Biosciences, Minneapolis, Minn., for growing our cell lines.
This work was supported by grants from the NIH (to R.E.K. and S.S.) and the Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Foundation (to G.J.N.).
| |
FOOTNOTES |
|---|
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Molecular Biology, Wellman 10, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114. Phone: (617) 726-5990. Fax: (617) 726-5949. E-mail: kingston{at}frodo.mgh.harvard.edu.
This paper is dedicated to Veronica Blasquez in remembrance of her
guidance, encouragement, and friendship.
| |
REFERENCES |
|---|
|
|
|---|
| 1. |
Allfrey, V. G.,
R. Faulkner, and A. E. Mirsky.
1964.
Acetylation and methylation of histones and their possible role in the regulation of RNA synthesis.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
51:786-794 |
| 2. | Ausio, J., F. Dong, and K. E. van Holde. 1989. Use of selectively trypsinized nucleosome core particles to analyze the role of the histone "tails" in the stabilization of the nucleosome. J. Mol. Biol. 206:451-463[Medline]. |
| 3. | Ausubel, F. M., R. Brent, R. E. Kingston, D. D. Moore, J. G. Seidman, J. A. Smith, and K. Struhl (ed.). 1992. Current protocols in molecular biology. Greene Publishing Associates/Wiley Interscience, New York, N.Y. |
| 4. | Böhm, L., and C. Crane-Robinson. 1984. Proteases as structural probes for chromatin: the domain structure of histones. Biosci. Rep. 4:365-386[Medline]. |
| 5. | Bradbury, E. M. 1992. Reversible histone modifications and the chromosome cell cycle. Bioessays 14:9-16[Medline]. |
| 6. |
Brown, S. A.,
A. N. Imbalzano, and R. E. Kingston.
1996.
Activator-dependent regulation of transcriptional pausing on nucleosomal templates.
Genes Dev.
10:1479-1490 |
| 7. | Brownell, J. E., J. Zhou, T. Ranalli, R. Kobayashi, D. G. Edmondson, S. Y. Roth, and C. D. Allis. 1996. Tetrahymena histone acetyltransferase A: a homolog to yeast Gcn5p linking histone acetylation to gene activation. Cell 84:843-851[Medline]. |
| 8. | Burns, L. G., and C. L. Peterson. 1997. The yeast SWI-SNF complex facilitates binding of a transcriptional activator to nucleosomal sites in vivo. Mol. Cell. Biol. 17:4811-4819[Abstract]. |
| 9. | Cairns, B. R., H. Erdjument-Bromage, P. Tempst, F. Winston, and R. D. Kornberg. 1998. Two actin-related proteins are shared functional components of the chromatin-remodeling complexes RSC and SWI/SNF. Mol. Cell 2:639-651[Medline]. |
| 10. |
Cairns, B. R.,
Y.-J. Kim,
M. H. Sayre,
B. C. Laurent, and R. D. Kornberg.
1994.
A multisubunit complex containing the SWI1/ADR6, SWI2/SNF2, SWI3, SNF5, and SNF6 gene products isolated from yeast.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
91:1950-1954 |
| 11. |
Cairns, B. R.,
R. S. Levinson,
K. R. Yamamoto, and R. D. Kornberg.
1996.
Essential role of Swp73p in the function of yeast Swi/Snf complex.
Genes Dev.
10:2131-2144 |
| 12. | Cairns, B. R., Y. Lorch, Y. Li, M. Zhang, L. Lacomis, B. H. Erdjument, P. Tempst, J. Du, B. Laurent, and R. D. Kornberg. 1996. RSC, an essential, abundant chromatin-remodeling complex. Cell 87:1249-1260[Medline]. |
| 13. | Cao, Y., B. R. Cairns, R. D. Kornberg, and B. C. Laurent. 1997. Sfh1p, a component of a novel chromatin-remodeling complex, is required for cell cycle progression. Mol. Cell. Biol. 17:3323-3334[Abstract]. |
| 14. |
Chiba, H.,
M. Muramatsu,
A. Nomoto, and H. Kato.
1994.
Two human homologues of Saccharomyces cerevisiae SWI2/SNF2 and Drosophila Brahma are transcriptional coactivators cooperating with the estrogen receptor and the retinoic acid receptor.
Nucleic Acids Res.
22:1815-1820 |
| 15. |
Côté, J.,
C. L. Peterson, and J. L. Workman.
1998.
Perturbation of nucleosome core structure by the SWI/SNF complex persists after its detachment, enhancing subsequent transcription factor binding.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
95:4947-4952 |
| 16. |
Côté, J.,
J. Quinn,
J. L. Workman, and C. L. Peterson.
1994.
Stimulation of GAL4 derivative binding to nucleosomal DNA by the yeast SWI/SNF complex.
Science
265:53-60 |
| 17. | Côté, J., R. T. Utley, and J. L. Workman. 1995. Basic analysis of transcription factor binding to nucleosomes. Methods Mol. Gen. 6:108-128. |
| 18. | Dingwall, A. K., S. J. Beek, C. M. McCallum, J. W. Tamkun, G. V. Kalpana, S. P. Goff, and M. P. Scott. 1995. The Drosophila snr1 and brm proteins are related to yeast SWI/SNF proteins and are components of a large protein complex. Mol. Biol. Cell 6:777-791[Abstract]. |
| 19. | Durrin, L. K., R. K. Mann, P. S. Kayne, and M. Grunstein. 1991. Yeast histone H4 N-terminal sequence is required for promoter activation in vivo. Cell 65:1023-1031[Medline]. |
| 20. | Georgel, P. T., T. Tsukiyama, and C. Wu. 1997. Role of histone tails in nucleosome remodeling by Drosophila NURF. EMBO J. 16:4717-4726[Medline]. |
| 21. | Hecht, A., T. Laroche, S. Strahl-Bolsinger, S. M. Gasser, and M. Grunstein. 1995. Histone H3 and H4 N-termini interact with SIR3 and SIR4 proteins: a molecular model for the formation of heterochromatin in yeast. Cell 80:583-592[Medline]. |
| 22. |
Huang, L.,
W. Zhang, and S. Y. Roth.
1997.
Amino termini of histones H3 and H4 are required for a1- 2 repression in yeast.
Mol. Cell. Biol.
17:6555-6562[Abstract].
|
| 23. | Imbalzano, A. N., H. Kwon, M. R. Green, and R. E. Kingston. 1994. Facilitated binding of TATA-binding protein to nucleosomal DNA. Nature 370:481-485[Medline]. |
| 24. |
Imbalzano, A. N.,
G. R. Schnitzler, and R. E. Kingston.
1996.
Nucleosome disruption by human SWI/SNF is maintained in the absence of continued ATP hydrolysis.
J. Biol. Chem.
271:20726-20733 |
| 25. |
Imbalzano, A. N.,
K. S. Zaret, and R. E. Kingston.
1994.
Transcription factor (TF)IIB and TFIIA can independently increase the affinity of the TATA-binding protein for DNA.
J. Biol. Chem.
269:8280-8286 |
| 26. | Ito, T., M. Bulger, M. J. Pazin, R. Kobayashi, and J. T. Kadonaga. 1997. ACF, an ISWI-containing and ATP-utilizing chromatin assembly and remodeling factor. Cell 90:145-155[Medline]. |
| 27. | Juan, L.-J., R. T. Utley, C. C. Adams, M. Vettese-Dadey, and J. L. Workman. 1994. Differential repression of transcription factor binding by histone H1 is regulated by the core histone amino termini. EMBO J. 13:6031-6040[Medline]. |
| 28. | Kayne, P. S., U.-J. Kim, M. Han, J. R. Mullen, F. Yoshizaki, and M. Grunstein. 1988. Extremely conserved histone H4 N terminus is dispensible for growth but essential for repressing the silent mating loci in yeast. Cell 55:27-39[Medline]. |
| 29. | Khavari, P. A., C. L. Peterson, J. W. Tamkun, D. B. Mendel, and G. R. Crabtree. 1993. BRG1 contains a conserved domain of the SWI2/SNF2 family necessary for normal mitotic growth and transcription. Nature 366:170-174[Medline]. |
| 30. |
Kleff, S.,
E. D. Andrulis,
C. W. Anderson, and R. Sternglanz.
1995.
Identification of a gene encoding a yeast histone H4 acetyltransferase.
J. Biol. Chem.
270:24674-24677 |
| 31. | Kwon, H., A. N. Imbalzano, P. A. Khavari, R. E. Kingston, and M. R. Green. 1994. Nucleosome disruption and enhancement of activator binding by a human SWI/SNF complex. Nature 370:477-481[Medline]. |
| 32. |
Laurent, B. C.,
X. Yang, and M. Carlson.
1992.
An essential Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene homologous to SNF2 encodes a helicase-related protein in a new family.
Mol. Cell. Biol.
12:1893-1902 |
| 33. | Lee, D. Y., J. J. Hayes, D. Pruss, and A. P. Wolffe. 1993. A positive role for histone acetylation in transcription factor access to nucleosomal DNA. Cell 72:73-84[Medline]. |
| 34. |
Ling, X.,
T. A. Harkness,
M. C. Schultz,
G. Fisher-Adams, and M. Grunstein.
1996.
Yeast histone H3 and H4 amino termini are important for nucleosome assembly in vivo and in vitro: redundant and position-independent functions in assembly but not in gene regulation.
Genes Dev.
10:686-699 |
| 35. | Logie, C., and C. L. Peterson. 1997. Catalytic activity of the yeast SWI/SNF complex on reconstituted nucleosome arrays. EMBO J. 16:6772-6782[Medline]. |
| 36. | Lorch, Y., B. R. Cairns, M. Zhang, and R. D. Kornberg. 1998. Activated RSC-nucleosome complex and persistently altered form of the nucleosome. Cell 94:29-34[Medline]. |
| 37. | Luger, K., A. W. Mader, R. K. Richmond, D. F. Sargent, and T. J. Richmond. 1997. Crystal structure of the nucleosome core particle at 2.8 Å resolution. Nature 389:251-260[Medline]. |
| 38. |
Megee, P. C.,
B. A. Morgan,
B. A. Mittman, and M. M. Smith.
1990.
Genetic analysis of histone H4: essential role of lysines subject to reversible acetylation.
Science
247:841-845 |
| 39. | Muchardt, C., and M. Yaniv. 1993. A human homologue of Saccharomyces cerevisiae SNF2/SWI2 and Drosophila brm genes potentiates transcriptional activation by the glucocorticoid receptor. EMBO J. 12:4279-4290[Medline]. |
| 40. | Owen-Hughes, T., R. T. Utley, J. Côté, C. L. Peterson, and J. L. Workman. 1996. Persistent site-specific remodeling of a nucleosome array by transient action of the SWI/SNF complex. Science 273:513-516[Abstract]. |
| 41. | Parthun, M. R., J. Windom, and D. E. Gottschling. 1996. The major cytoplasmic histone acetyltransferase in yeast: links to chromatin replication and histone metabolism. Cell 87:85-94[Medline]. |
| 42. |
Pazin, M. J.,
P. Bhargava,
E. P. Geiduschek, and J. T. Kadonaga.
1997.
Nucleosome mobility and the maintenance of nucleosome positioning.
Science
276:809-812 |
| 43. |
Peterson, C. L.,
A. Dingwall, and M. P. Scott.
1994.
Five SWI/SNF gene products are components of a large multiprotein complex required for transcriptional enhancement.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
91:2905-2908 |
| 44. |
Peterson, C. L.,
Y. Zhao, and B. T. Chait.
1998.
Subunits of the yeast SWI/SNF complex are members of the actin-related protein (ARP) family.
J. Biol. Chem.
273:23641-23644 |
| 45. | Rhodes, D., and R. A. Laskey. 1989. Assembly of nucleosomes and chromatin in vitro, p. 575-585. In P. M. Wasserman, and R. D. Kornberg (ed.), Methods in enzymology, vol. 170. Academic Press, San Diego, Calif. |
| 46. |
Richmond, E., and C. L. Peterson.
1996.
Functional analysis of the DNA-stimulated ATPase domain of yeast SWI2/SNF2.
Nucleic Acids Res.
24:3685-3692 |
| 47. | Roberts, S. M., and F. Winston. 1997. Essential functional interactions of SAGA, a Saccharomyces cerevisiae complex of Spt, Ada and Gcn5 proteins, with the Snf/Swi, and Srb/mediator complexes. Genetics 147:451-465[Abstract]. |
| 48. | Roth, S. Y., and C. D. Allis. 1996. Histone acetylation and chromatin assembly: a single escort, multiple dances? Cell 87:5-8[Medline]. |
| 49. | Schnitzler, G., S. Sif, and R. E. Kingston. 1998. Human SWI/SNF interconverts a nucleosome between its base state and a stable remodeled state. Cell 94:17-27[Medline]. |
| 50. | Schwarz, P. M., A. Felthauser, T. M. Fletcher, and J. C. Hansen. 1996. Reversible oligonucleosome self-association: dependence on divalent cations and core histone tail domains. Biochemistry 35:4009-4015[Medline]. |
| 51. |
Sif, S.,
P. T. Stukenberg,
M. W. Kirschner, and R. E. Kingston.
1998.
Mitotic inactivation of a human SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex.
Genes Dev.
12:2842-2851 |
| 52. | Tamkun, J. W., R. Deuring, M. P. Scott, M. Kissinger, A. M. Pattatucci, T. C. Kaufman, and J. A. Kennison. 1992. brahma: a regulator of Drosophila homeotic genes structurally related to the yeast transcription activator SNF2/SWI2. Cell 68:561-572[Medline]. |
| 53. | Taunton, J., C. A. Hassis, and S. L. Schreiber. 1996. A mammalian histone deacetylase related to the yeast transcriptional regulator Rpd3p. Science 272:408-411[Abstract]. |
| 54. | Thompson, J. S., X. Ling, and M. Grunstein. 1994. The histone H3 amino terminus is required for telomeric and silent mating locus repression in yeast. Nature 369:245-247[Medline]. |
| 55. | Thorne, A. W., D. Kmiciek, K. Mitchelson, P. Sautiere, and C. Crane-Robinson. 1990. Patterns of histone acetylation. Eur. J. Biochem. 193:701-713[Medline]. |
| 56. | Tong, J. K., C. A. Hassig, G. R. Schnitzler, R. E. Kingston, and S. L. Schreiber. 1998. Chromatin deacetylation by an ATP-dependent nucleosome remodelling complex. Nature 395:917-921[Medline]. |
| 57. | Tsukiyama, T., C. Daniel, J. Tamkun, and C. Wu. 1995. ISWI, a member of the SWI2/SNF2 ATPase family, encodes the 140 kDa subunit of the nucleosome remodeling factor. Cell 83:1021-1026[Medline]. |
| 58. | Tsukiyama, T., and C. Wu. 1995. Purification and properties of an ATP-dependent nucleosome remodeling factor. Cell 83:1011-1020[Medline]. |
| 59. | Varga-Weisz, P. D., M. Wilm, E. Bonte, K. Dumas, M. Mann, and P. B. Becker. 1997. Chromatin-remodelling factor CHRAC contains the ATPases ISWI and topoisomerase II. Nature 388:598-602[Medline]. |
| 60. | Verreault, A., P. D. Kaufman, R. Kobayashi, and B. Stillman. 1996. Nucleosome assembly by a complex of CAF-1 and acetylated histones H3/H4. Cell 87:95-104[Medline]. |
| 61. |
Vettese-Dadey, M.,
P. Walter,
H. Chen,
L.-J. Juan, and J. L. Workman.
1994.
Role of the histone amino termini in facilitated binding of a transcription factor, GAL4-AH, to nucleosome cores.
Mol. Cell. Biol.
14:970-981 |
| 62. | Wade, P. A., P. L. Jones, D. Vermaak, and A. P. Wolffe. 1998. A multiple subunit Mi-2 histone deacetylase from Xenopus laevis cofractionates with an associated Snf2 superfamily ATPase. Curr. Biol. 8:843-846[Medline]. |
| 63. | Wallis, J. W., M. Rykowski, and M. Grunstein. 1983. Yeast histone H2B containing large amino terminus deletions can function in vivo. Cell 35:711-719[Medline]. |
| 64. | Wang, W., J. Côté, Y. Xue, S. Zhou, P. A. Khavari, S. R. Biggar, C. Muchardt, G. V. Kalpana, S. P. Goff, M. Yaniv, J. L. Workman, and G. R. Crabtree. 1996. Purification and biochemical heterogeneity of the mammalian SWI-SNF complex. EMBO J. 15:5370-5382[Medline]. |
| 65. |
Wang, W.,
Y. Xue,
S. Zhou,
A. Kuo,
B. R. Cairns, and G. R. Crabtree.
1996.
Diversity and specialization of mammalian SWI/SNF complexes.
Genes Dev.
10:2117-2130 |
| 66. | Workman, J. L., I. C. A. Taylor, R. E. Kingston, and R. G. Roeder. 1991. Control of class II gene transcription during in vitro nucleosome assembly. Methods Cell Biol. 35:419-447[Medline]. |
| 67. |
Yang, W. M.,
C. Inouye,
Y. Zeng,
D. Bearss, and E. Seto.
1996.
Transcriptional repression by YY1 is mediated by interaction with a mammalian homolog of the yeast global regulator RPD3.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
93:12845-12850 |
This article has been cited by other articles:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||