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Molecular and Cellular Biology, February 2007, p. 1254-1263, Vol. 27, No. 4
0270-7306/07/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/MCB.01661-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Masashi Yukawa,
and
Eiko Tsuchiya*
Department of Molecular Biotechnology, Graduate School of Advanced Sciences of Matter, Hiroshima University, Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8530, Japan
Received 6 September 2006/ Returned for modification 4 October 2006/ Accepted 30 November 2006
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Meiosis and spore morphogenesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae are developmental processes of this organism. Recent microarray experiments indicated that more than 1,000 genes are induced above background levels during these processes (8, 22). The initiation of the meiotic pathway is governed by a genetic signal, indicating that the cell is diploid, and a nutritional signal, indicating that the cell is being starved by the absence of both a fermentable carbon source and nitrogen. These signals induce the expression and activation of Ime1, which serves as the master switch for meiosis (for review, see references 12, 18, and 36). Ime1 is a transcriptional activator of early meiosis-specific genes (EMGs). Of such genes IME2, which encodes a serine/threonine protein kinase, has particular importance; because it, together with Ime1, participates in the normal activation of EMGs (for a review, see reference 18).
A large number of EMG promoters, including that of IME2, contain a 9-bp site called the upstream repressor sequence (URS1), which is constitutively bound by a zinc finger protein, Ume6. When the cells are under conditions for vegetative growth, with either glucose or acetate as the sole carbon source, Ume6 interacts with Rpd3-Sin3 histone deacetylase (HDAC)- and Isw2 chromatin-remodeling complexes to repress transcription (9, 13, 14). The Isw2 complex promotes the formation of a nuclease-inaccessible chromatin structure upstream of the URS1 sequence at target genes by changing nucleosome positions, and the Rpd3-Sin3 complex deacetylates histones incorporating the URS1 site to enhance the repressed state (9). Upon activation of EMGs, Ume6 functions as an activator by tethering Ime1 to URS1 (28). This interaction between Ume6 and Ime1 requires the phosphorylation of Ime1 by Rim11 and potentially other kinases such as Mck1 (38). For the efficient activation of EMGs, Gcn5 histone acetyltransferase (HAT) and the RSC chromatin remodeling complex play pivotal roles (5, 39); and the Set3 complex, which contains a putative histone methyltransferase and two HDACs, also affects the regulation of EMGs (20). These studies indicate that the conversion of Ume6 from a repressor to an activator of EMG expression through the alteration of interacting partners and the regulation of the chromatin structure around the URS1 site by multiple chromatin remodelers are critical for the induction of EMGs and for the progression of meiosis. However, the molecular mechanisms for regulating the EMG expression in the context of chromatin are poorly understood.
Here we monitored the time course of the activation of IME2, focusing on the chromatin structure of the promoter region of this gene and the interplay between the factors known to be involved in the regulation.
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::TRP1 by a previously described method (27). NPS1-TAP was constructed by introducing a tandem affinity purification (TAP) cassette (24) in frame to the last codon of the genomic NPS1 gene with a kanMX marker. Sporulation of the IME1-HA (WMY11-D) strain was comparable to that of the wild type (W303-1D). The NPS1-TAP (WHK40-D) strain grew well in YPD (1% yeast extract, 2% peptone, 2% glucose) and YPA (containing 2% potassium acetate instead of the glucose in YPD), showed no detectable growth defect, and sporulated equivalently to the wild type. |
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TABLE 1. Yeast strains used in this study
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ß-Galactosidase activity was assayed by using permeabilized cells carrying pMY264 (IME2p::lacZ URA3), as described previously (39).
Chromatin structure analysis. Digestion of chromatin with microccocal nuclease (MNase) and Southern blotting were done essentially as described previously (35), except that spheroplasting of the cells was done by incubation with Zymolyase at 37°C for 10 min (Seikagaku Corporation). BstEII was used to digest the deproteinized DNA samples after purification. The experiment was performed at least three times, and typical results are presented.
Northern and Western blot analyses. RNA preparation, Northern blotting, preparation of protein samples, and Western blotting were carried out as described earlier (15, 39). The intensity of the mRNA bands obtained by Northern blotting was measured by using a BAS-2000 Bioimaging analyzer (Fuji Photo Film Co.), and mRNA levels were normalized to the individual U3 RNA level.
ChIP. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) analysis was done essentially as described (11) with the following modifications: antibody-treated fractions (400 µl) were incubated with 15 µl of Dynabeads-protein G (Dynal Biotech) at 4°C for 3 h with gentle rotation. For precipitation using TAP-tagged proteins, 10 µl of immunoglobulin G (IgG)-Sepharose (Amersham Bioscience) was used in 400 µl of sheared chromatin. The bead-bound immune complexes were washed twice with 1.0 ml of lysis buffer (50 mM HEPES-KOH, pH 7.5, containing 140 mM NaCl, 1% Triton X-100, 0.1% sodium deoxychorate, 0.1% sodium dodecyl sulfate, 1 mM EDTA), 1.0 ml of high-salt lysis buffer (50 mM HEPES-KOH, pH 7.5, containing 500 mM NaCl, 1% Triton X-100, 0.1% sodium deoxycholate, 1 mM EDTA), and 1.0 ml of wash buffer (10 mM Tris-HCl, pH 8.0, containing 250 mM LiCl, 0.5% NP-40, 0.5% sodium deoxycholate) and once with 1.0 ml of TE (10 mM Tris-HCl, pH 8.0, containing 1 mM EDTA). Quantitative PCR was performed on undiluted immunoprecipitated-DNA samples or 50- to 100-fold-diluted input chromatin samples. The linear range of template for multiplex PCR was determined empirically. Each experiment was repeated at the chromatin immunoprecipitation and PCR steps. The following antibodies were used: anti-histone H3 C terminus (Abcam), anti-histone H3 acetyl K9/14 (Upstate), anti-yeast Rpd3 (Upstate), anti-yeast Gcn5 (Santa Cruz Biotechnology), and anti-HA (BAbCO). The PCR primers amplified the following regions, whose coordinates are given relative to ATG (+1). IME2 URS1 primers amplified the 352-bp region from 712 to 361, IME2 TATA primers amplified the 294-bp region from 330 to 37, IME2 ORF primers amplified the 350-bp region from +40 to +389, SPO13 URS1 primers amplified the 413-bp region from 320 to + 93, LEU2 ORF primers amplified the 244-bp region from +227 to +470; HTA1 ORF primers amplified the 245-bp region from 25 to +220, HTA1/HTB1 promoter primers amplified the 301-bp region from 360 to 660, and Chr-VI TEL primers amplified the 293-bp region from 269,352 to 269,644 of chromosome VI.
TAP. The extraction of yeast cells and TAP were performed as described previously (33). Purified proteins were concentrated by lyophilization and subjected to immunoblotting.
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126 and 163 to
168) were masked by nucleosome 1, as schematically shown in Fig. 1A. The IME2 promoter contains two URS1 sequences: one at nt 449 to
457 and the other at 544 to
552. These two sites were located at nucleosomes 3 and 4, respectively. After the cells had been grown in rich medium containing acetate as the sole carbon source, alteration of the MNase sensitivity at several sites was detectable; however, few novel cutting bands appeared, indicating that the positioning of nucleosomes was not altered under this growth condition (YPA, Fig. 1A, SPM, 0 h, wild type).
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FIG. 1. Analysis of chromatin structure of the IME2 gene. (A) Wild type (WT; W303-1D) or nps1-105 (WTH1-D) cells were harvested at the indicated times and processed for MNase digestion. Positions of nucleosomes with respect to the IME2 sequence are schematically indicated on the left side of the figure. MNase cleavage sites enhanced or not enhanced (control) in the wild type are marked with closed or open triangles, respectively. Southern blots were scanned by a Bioimaging analyzer, and the percentage of the newly appeared bands in SPM, relative to all bands produced in the same lane was calculated (bar graphs below the panel). N, the naked DNA control; Y, the sample from cells vegetatively growing in YPD medium. From the top, the sizes of the marker bands are 992, 512, 368, and 267 bp. The nucleotide positions of the IME2 ORF corresponding to each marker band are indicated on the right side. This experiment was performed three times with good consistency. Typical results are presented. (B) MNase mapping was carried out on gcn5 (WTI20-D) or ime1 (WMY10-D) cells as described for panel A.
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FIG. 5. Effects of RPD3 and SIN3 deletions on the chromatin structure and the expression of the IME2 gene. (A) Nucleosome mapping by MNase digestion for the rpd3 (WHS20-D) and sin3 (WMY30-D) strains. Numbers indicate the time in hours (h) after the shift to SPM, and N denotes the naked DNA control. WT, wild type. Markers are as described in the legend to Fig. 1. (B) Northern blot analysis of IME1 and IME2 mRNA levels in the sin3 and nps1-105 sin3 cells. The strains used were wild type (W303-1D), nps1-105 (WTH-1D), sin3 (WMY30-D), and nps1-105 sin3 (WMY31-D). RNA samples were hybridized with radioactively labeled IME1 and IME2 probes. The U3 small nuclear RNA probe was used as a loading control. These experiments were performed three times with good consistency. Typical results are presented.
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For initiation of IME2 expression, the Ime1 transcription activator and Gcn5 HAT play pivotal roles (5, 18). So, we examined the involvement of these two factors in the chromatin structure at the IME2 promoter. In the absence of either gene, there was no MNase hypersensitivity of either the region of nucleosomes 1 and 2 or other regions after a longer incubation period (12 h) in SPM (Fig. 1B). Taken together, the data indicate that at the onset of meiosis, Gcn5/HAT, Ime1, and RSC functioned to alter the chromatin structure around the TATA box of IME2. As the loss of Gcn5 or Ime1 or mutations of RSC components abrogated or delayed the IME2 expression, this chromatin remodeling would appear to be essential for the gene activation.
Enrichment of acetylated histone H3 transiently occurs at URS1.
The recruitment of one coactivator may stimulate the recruitment of another, and this interdependence can be reflected in a sequential order of coactivator recruitment to the promoter. We wanted to know the order of recruitment of Gcn5/HAT, Ime1, and RSC to the IME2 promoter; and so we first assessed the kinetics of histone H3 acetylation at the URS1 site during the course of IME2 activation. To examine this issue, we carried out ChIP analysis by using anti-acetylated histone H3 antibody. In this experiment, we used primers for a region 0.5 kb from the telomere of chromosome VI-R (269,352 to
29,644), a site that is not transcribed (29), as an internal normalization control for each PCR. After quantification of each PCR product, values were normalized with the control value and are shown in Fig. 2B, with the amount of vegetatively-growing (YPD) wild-type cells taken as 1. The increase in H3 acetylation was transient, and, interestingly, the highest level of acetylation was observed at the time of the shift to SPM when the locus is in a transcriptionally inactive state. As reported earlier (5), the increase in acetylation levels was dependent upon Gcn5 and the acetylation level was constitutively high when Rpd3 was absent. The kinetics of H3 acetylation observed with both nps1-105 and ime1
was similar to that of the wild type, indicating that the increase in H3 acetylation depended upon neither RSC nor Ime1. We also assessed histone H4 acetylation; however, little increase was detectable (data not shown) as described earlier (5).
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FIG. 2. Histone H3 modification at the IME2 promoter. (A) A schematic model for the chromatin structure at the IME2 promoter. Positions of the PCR fragments used for ChIP analysis are shown with respect to the nucleosomal organization of the repressed promoter (Fig. 1). Nucleosomes remodeled at the active promoter are indicated by open circles. URS1 (black box) and the TATA box (open box) are also indicated. (B) ChIP analysis of acetylated histone H3 levels over the IME2 URS1. DNA was immunoprecipitated with anti-acetylated histone H3 from wild type (WT; W303-1D), nps1-105 (WTH1-D), gcn5 (WTI20-D), ime1 (WMY10-D), and rpd3 (WHS20-D) cells. The amount of immunoprecipitated DNA was determined by PCR with primer pairs directed against IME2-URS1. As a control, a primer set was also used for a region 0.5 kb from the telomere of chromosome VI-R (TEL). The relative amount of acetylated histone H3 was determined as the ratio of immunoprecipitated URS1 product relative to the TEL product divided by the ratio of the respective input product. The values are shown with the amount of vegetatively growing (YPD) wild-type cells given as 1. The values shown are averages of three independent experiments. (C) Time course of histone H3-acetylation in the wild-type strain. The amount of immunoprecipitated DNA was determined by PCR and calculated as described for panel B and is shown as a relative amount with the value of the URS1 of YPD-grown cells (0 h of YPA) referred to as 1. The values are averages of four independent experiments. The standard deviation was within ±0.3. (D) ChIP analysis of histone H3 levels over the IME2 promoter. The amount of DNA coimmunoprecipitated with anti-histone H3 carboxy terminus was determined by PCR with primer pairs directed against the IME2-URS1 and TATA regions. As a control, the primer set was also used for LEU2. Relative histone occupancy was determined as the ratio of immunoprecipitated URS1 and TATA products relative to the LEU2 product of YPD-grown cells given as 1, after normalization with the ratio of input products. The value at each time point is an average of three independent experiments. The standard deviation was within ±0.3 for LEU2 and TATA and ±0.5 for URS1.
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Gcn5 is required for sustained binding of Ime1.
Figure 2 shows that the enrichment of H3 acetylation at the IME2 promoter occurred at the URS1 site. Despite the fact that H3 acetylation occurred in the ime1
or nps1-105 strain, alteration of the chromatin structure monitored by MNase digestion was not detectable when these strains were incubated in SPM (Fig. 1), suggesting a possibility that this histone modification functioned for recruitment of Ime1, RSC, or both. In order to determine the timing of Ime1 and RSC recruitment to the IME2 promoter, we constructed a strain expressing HA-tagged Ime1 (IME1-HA) and one expressing TAP-tagged Nps1 (NPS1-TAP) from the genomic IME1 and NPS1 loci, respectively, and carried out ChIP analysis using an antibody against HA epitope or IgG-Sepharose for the respective strains. Expression of each protein was monitored by immunoblotting. Both constructs suppressed the phenotypes of the mutation of the respective genes (sporulation defect of ime1
and lethality of nps1
) and allowed the cells to sporulate with an efficiency equivalent to that of the wild type, showing that they were functional. Figure 3A shows that a small amount of Ime1-HA was expressed at the time of the shift of the wild type to SPM. The protein levels rapidly increased by 2 h, and then they were constantly maintained until 6 h. Ime1-HA occupancy at the IME2 URS1 site was detectable after 2 h in SPM, and its level rapidly increased by 4 h. This kinetics of Ime1 binding is in good agreement with that of IME2 expression (Fig. 5B); however, the binding was in a notable delay when compared with the kinetics of the protein accumulation. On the other hand, the protein level of Nps1-TAP was almost constant during the incubation in SPM, and Nps1-TAP binding at the URS1 site was near the background level at all time points tested (Fig. 3B): i.e., the ratio of the PCR product of immunoprecipitated URS1 relative to that of the internal control, HTA1 ORF, on which no binding of RSC was detected by a genome-wide location analysis and ChIP (19) did not exceed the ratio obtained with untagged sample (data not shown). We verified the binding of Nps1-TAP at the regulatory region of the HTA1/HTB1 promoter in vegetatively growing cells, as reported by Ng et al. (19), showing that the lack of binding of Nps1-TAP to URS1 was not due to the impairment of IP.
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FIG. 3. Binding of Ime1-HA and Nps1-TAP to the IME2 URS1 site. The strains used were WMY11-D (A), WHK40-D (B), WMY12-D (C), and WMY13-D (D). The cells were harvested at the indicated times, divided into two portions, and processed for ChIP analysis and immunoblotting. The amount of immunoprecipitated DNA obtained by anti-HA antibody (A, C, and D) or IgG-Sepharose (B) was determined by PCR with primer pairs directed against IME2-URS1, calculated as described in the legend to Fig. 2B, and shown as a relative amount with the value of the YPD-grown cells (Y) of each strain taken as 1. As a control, a primer set for the telomere of chromosome VI-R (TEL) (A, C, and D) or HTA1 ORF (B), on which no binding of RSC occurs (19), was used. The ratio of the URS1 signal to the TEL signal or to the HTA1 signal of untagged samples was almost equivalent to that of input samples. The values are averages of three independent experiments. Ime1-HA and Nps1-TAP were detected with anti-HA and anti-Nps1 antibody, respectively.
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IME1-HA strain revealed that Ime1 occupancy at URS1 did not stably increase in this strain when the cells were shifted to meiotic conditions (Fig. 3C). This result indicates that the presence of Gcn5 was required for the stable binding of Ime1. The levels of Ime1-HA expression and the kinetics of its accumulation in gcn5
IME1-HA were almost equivalent to those for the isogenic GCN5 IME1-HA strain. RSC interacts with Ime1 and transiently binds to TATA. As suggested from the data in Fig. 1, if RSC remodeled nucleosomes 1 and 2, it might make contact with these nucleosomes. To examine this issue, we carried out ChIP on NPS1-TAP for enrichment of TATA sequence in the precipitates. First, we carried out ChIP analysis on the cells withdrawn from the culture at 1-h intervals during the 6-h incubation in SPM. In the 3-h samples, a level of TATA sequence 1.6 times higher than that for vegetative cells was recovered. Then we examined the binding at 10-min intervals during the course of 120 to 240 min of incubation in SPM (Fig. 4A) Significant, albeit modest, enrichment of the TATA sequence was observed between 130 and 210 min, showing that Nps1-TAP transiently bound to TATA.
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FIG. 4. Nps1/RSC transiently binds to the IME2 TATA box. (A) Time course of Nps1-TAP binding to the IME2 TATA sequence. The strains used were WHK40-D (IME1) and WMY14-D (ime1 ). The amount of immunoprecipitated DNA was determined by PCR with primer pairs directed against the IME2 TATA, calculated as described in the legend to Fig. 2B and shown as a relative amount referring to the value of the YPD-grown cells (Y) of IME1 as 1. As a control, a primer set for HTA1 ORF was used. The ratio of the TATA signal to the HTA1 signal of untagged samples was almost equivalent to that of input samples. The values are averages of three independent experiments. (B) Ime1-HA is copurified with Nps1-TAP. The NPS1-TAP IME1-HA (WMY15-D) or NPS1 IME1-HA (minus TAP tag; WMY11-D) cells were harvested at the indicated times and processed for TAP. Proteins eluted from a calmodulin-Sepharose gel were concentrated by lyophilization and then immunoblotted with anti-HA and anti-Nps1 antibodies.
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IME1-HA and ime1
NPS1-TAP strains and performed ChIP analysis using anti-HA antibody and IgG-Sepharose, respectively. Although nps1-105 rsc2
IME1-HA showed severe defects in IME2 expression and sporulation (less than 5% after a 96-h incubation in SPM), both the expression level of Ime1-HA and its occupancy at URS1 occurred with kinetics similar to those observed for the wild type (Fig. 3D) (data for IME2 expression of nps1-105 rsc2
IME1-HA not shown). On the contrary, Nps1-TAP occupancy at TATA was greatly reduced by the IME1 deletion (Fig. 4A). These observations indicate that Ime1 was required for the recruitment of RSC. To assess whether Ime1 physically interacted with the RSC complex, we carried out the TAP of RSC and asked whether Ime1 would be copurified with the complex. As shown in Fig. 4B, Ime1 was detectable in the affinity-purified sample from the cells of incubated for 3 h in SPM, but was not detectable in the nontagged preparation, indicating that Ime1 physically interacted with the RSC complex.
In the absence of the Rpd3-Sin3 complex, IME2 is expressed with earlier timing and RSC is dispensable for transcriptional activation.
Our results described above show that the recruitment of Ime1 and RSC to the IME2 promoter and the remodeling of nucleosomes at 1 and 2 were initiated with almost the same timing: i.e., 2 h after shifting the wild-type cells to SPM. These results indicate that the binding of Ime1 to the URS1 site is a rate-limiting step for this chromatin remodeling and the subsequent activation of IME2 transcription. Our results also suggest that the Ime1 binding to URS1 required Gcn5, which was responsible for the acetylation of histone H3 at URS1. Intriguingly, the amount of the binding of Ime1 to URS1 at 2 h in SPM was quite small, in spite of the fact that both the level of H3 acetylation at URS1 and the amount of Ime1 expression were at their highest at this time point (Fig. 2C and 3A). We thought of the possibility that there might be a mechanism that prevents the binding of Ime1 at the very early stages under sporulation conditions. For such a mechanism, the higher-order chromatin structure at the IME2 promoter or the existence of some inhibitory factor on the promoter may be considered. The repressive chromatin structure during the mitotic growth condition is known to be maintained by the Rpd3-Sin3 HDAC complex, which is tethered to the URS1 site through the interaction between Sin3 and Ume6, a DNA-binding protein that binds to URS1. So we asked whether the chromatin structure at the IME2 promoter and the expression of IME2 would be altered in the absence of HDAC. Under vegetative growth conditions, the MNase digestion pattern between nt 20 and 330 of both the rpd3
and sin3
strains was notably different from that of the wild type; i.e., novel cutting bands appeared in this region, and the intensity of the ones corresponding to nt 20 and 180 was decreased (Fig. 5A, open triangles and asterisks). On the other hand, the digestion pattern between nt 330 and 620 in both deletion strains was similar to that of the wild type. This result suggests that, in the absence of the Rpd3-Sin3 complex, the 1 and 2 nucleosomes might not be positioned in ordered array, whereas the 3 and 4 ones, which span URS1 sites, would be so positioned. The maintenance of the positioning of 3 and 4 nucleosomes in the absence of Rpd3-Sin3 complex is consistent with the finding of Goldmark et al. on the promoter of REC104, another URS1-containing gene (9). We assessed the level of IME2 expression by using a reporter construct that expressed ß-galactosidase from the IME2 promoter (IME2p::lacZ) and detected 20-times-higher ß-galactosidase activity in vegetatively growing rpd3
cells (12.46 ± 3.96 Miller units) than in the wild-type ones (0.57 ± 0.20 Miller units). However, the level of IME2 derepression in rpd3
cells under mitotic conditions was five times lower than that of ume6
cells (66.7 ± 6.24 Miller units). These results are consistent with the previously described ones that were determined by Northern blot analysis (9), indicating that the role of the positioning of 1 and 2 nucleosomes for the repression of the IME2 gene at mitosis might be partial.
Interestingly, on the other hand, a significant amount of IME2 mRNA appeared in either the sin3
or rpd3
strain at the time of shifting the cells to SPM, where no IME2 mRNA was detectable in the wild type (Fig. 5B). In the sin3
strain, the appearance and accumulation of IME2 mRNA occurred almost concurrently with that of IME1 mRNA; whereas in the wild-type strain, IME2 mRNA appeared with a delay of approximately 4 to 6 h from the appearance of the IME1 mRNA. The ime1
mutation strongly blocked the induction of IME2 expression in the rpd3
strain, as reported earlier (4; data not shown). We also found that the MNase cutting pattern of the IME2 promoter in sin3
and rpd3
strains at the time of the shift to SPM was similar to that of the wild type after a 6-h incubation in SPM, when the gene expression actively occurred (data for rpd3
strain not shown).
In the case of the nps1-105 sin3
or the nps1-105 rpd3
double mutant, the IME2 mRNA appeared and accumulated with kinetics similar to that for the sin3
or rpd3
single mutant, showing that RSC was dispensable when the chromatin structure of 1 and 2 nucleosomes was abrogated in the absence of HDAC (Fig. 5B, data for the nps1-105 rpd3
strain not shown).
Rpd3-Sin3 complex is continuously present at URS1 regardless of the transcriptional condition of IME2. As described in the previous section, in the absence of HDAC, the chromatin structure at nucleosomes 1 and 2 of the IME2 promoter was abrogated; and IME2 transcription occurred with earlier timing. If the chromatin structure at the TATA box of IME2 promoter prevents the binding of Ime1 at the very early stages of meiosis, this chromatin structure should be remodeled by RSC before the binding of Ime1. However, this was not the case, because the recruitment of RSC to TATA depended on Ime1 (Fig. 4A). Therefore, we considered the possibility that the Rpd3-Sin3 complex itself or a factor(s) associated with the complex might have blocked the binding of Ime1 to prevent transcription at the very early stages of meiosis. If so, Rpd3-Sin3 complex would be expected to be present at the URS1 site at this stage of meiosis. To examine this issue, we carried out ChIP analysis with anti-Rpd3 and found that Rpd3 was present at the IME2-URS1 site at all time points tested (Fig. 6). The amount of URS1 DNA coimmunoprecipitated with Rpd3 was rather higher when the cells were in the meiotic condition than in the vegetative growth one. A similar result was obtained for SPO13, another gene carrying the URS1 site. These results demonstrate that the Rpd3-Sin3 complex continuously bound URS1 and suggest a possibility that the Rpd3-Sin3 complex itself or some unidentified factor(s) that associates with the complex might contribute to the prevention of IME2 expression at the very early stages of meiosis.
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FIG. 6. The Rpd3-Sin3 complex is continuously present at the URS1 site. Wild-type (WT; W303-1D) and nps1-105 (WTH-1D) cells were processed for ChIP analysis with anti-Rpd3 antibody (-ab). Y denotes a sample from cells vegetatively growing in YPD medium, and numbers indicate the time in hours after the shift to SPM. Typical results are presented in the upper two panels. The average amount of immunoprecipitated DNA obtained from five independent experiments was calculated and processed as described in the legend to Fig. 2B and is shown as a bar graph at the bottom.
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FIG. 7. A model for the transcriptional regulation of IME2 by chromatin remodelers and Ime1. When the cells are vegetatively growing in rich medium containing either glucose or acetate as the sole carbon source (YPD and YPA), four nucleosomes indicated as 1 to 4 are positioned at the promoter of IME2 in an ordered array where nucleosome 1 masks the two TATA sequences. The proper positioning of 1 and 2 nucleosomes is fully dependent on the Rpd3-Sin3 complex, and the gene expression is completely repressed. When acetate is the sole carbon source (YPA), a gradual increase in the histone H3 acetylation at nucleosomes 3 and 4 takes place. The acetylated state of nucleosomes 3 and 4 might affect the higher-order chromatin structure, but does not alter the positioning of nucleosomes in the ordered array, and the gene is still in the repressed condition. When the cells are transferred to SPM, Ime1 expression is accelerated and activated by phosphorylation. However, at the very early stages in SPM (0 to 2 h), the binding of Ime1 is prevented by some unidentified factor(s) (X) in a manner dependent on the Rpd3-Sin3 complex. Then, Ime1 binds to Ume6 and, in turn, recruits RSC, and the remodeling of nucleosomes 1 and 2 by RSC occurs to allow gene expression.
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What is the role of Gcn5/HAT and histone H3 acetylation in IME2 expression? In the absence of Gcn5, Ime1 did not stably bind to URS1 (Fig. 3C). Although Gcn5 was shown to be responsible for the hyperacetylation of histone H3 at URS1 (Fig. 2B), unexpectedly, the kinetics of the H3 acetylation did not coincide with that of the binding of Ime1 to URS1: i.e., the acetylation level of H3 increased long before the expression of Ime1, and it decreased after a 4-h incubation in SPM, when a large amount of Ime1 binding was obvious (Fig. 2C and 3A). Ime1 is tethered to URS1 by binding to Ume6 (28), and neither binding activity for histones nor the presence of a domain that binds acetylated lysine has so far been detected in Ime1. Considering the results that hyperacetylation of H3 at URS1 itself did not affect the positioning of nucleosomes at the IME2 promoter (Fig. 1) and the RSC complex, which contains multiple bromodomain proteins known to directly bind acetylated lysine, did not bind to URS1 (Fig. 3B), this modification might affect the higher-order chromatin structure by changing the internucleosomal interaction to help the efficient binding of Ime1 (Fig. 7, step 1). In addition, our results suggest a possibility that Gcn5 plays an additional role, independent of histone H3 acetylation, for the stable binding of Ime1.
What mechanism makes a delay in the Ime1 binding to URS1?
Our study suggested a possibility that the Rpd3-Sin3 complex itself or a factor(s) associated with the complex blocked the binding of Ime1 at the very early stages of meiosis. One of the possible candidates for this factor is the Set3 complex, because the expression of IME2 in set3
cells was reported to occur earlier than in the wild-type ones (20). In addition, Cpr1, a component of the Set3 complex, was shown to physically interact with the Rpd3-Sin3 complex (1). Another candidate is Hac1 (Hac1i). HAC1 mRNA is spliced in response to the accumulation of unfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum, and only this form is translated (see reference 30 and references therein). When nitrogen is present at high concentrations, HAC1 mRNA is spliced; and its product, Hac1i, physically interacts with Rpd3-Sin3 complex to repress the EMG transcription (30, 31). So we monitored the kinetics of IME2 expression under meiotic conditions in set3
and hac1
homodiploids by using an IME2p::lacZ reporter construct and verified that the reporter gene expression occurred with earlier timing in the hac1
strain than in the wild type (Inai et al., unpublished result). In the case of set3
, although we detected little difference in the expression level of IME2p::lacZ between it and the wild type, deletion of the gene on the hac1
background enhanced the reporter gene expression. However, in both the hac1
and hac1
set3
strains, the acceleration of the IME2p::lacZ expression was only partial compared with that in the rpd3
strain (ß-galactosidase activities in the wild type, rpd3
, hac1
, and set3
hac1
cells at 4 h in SPM of 26.1 ± 9.6, 314.7 ± 66.6, 53.9 ± 11.1, and 161 ± 18.2 Miller units, respectively) (Inai et al., unpublished result). Therefore, we consider that, in addition to Hac1i and the Set3 complex, there may still be an unidentified factor(s) that associates with the Rpd3-Sin3 complex and makes a delay in Ime1 binding at the very early stages of meiosis. Alternatively, the Rpd3-Sin3 complex itself, with the help of Hac1i and the Set3 complex, may play a role in this retardation. In either case, questions as to when this repressive structure for Ime1 binding is formed around the Rpd3-Sin3 complex and how this repressive condition is resolved remain enigmatic.
In contrast to our results, Pnueli et al. reported that the Rpd3-Sin3 complex is transiently removed from the URS1 site and replaced with Ime1 shortly after the shift to SPM (21). Earlier coimmunoprecipitation experiments, however, showed that the HDAC is associated with Ume6 under meiotic conditions (17). In addition, recent studies showed that Ume6 is a stable component of the Rpd3-Sin3 complex termed Rpd3L (6, 7). In our ChIP experiment, the anti-Rpd3 antibody efficiently coimmunoprecipitated IME2- and SPO13-URS1 sequences even when the H3 acetylation level had reached its highest, 2 h after the shift to SPM (Fig. 2 and 6). We repeated this ChIP analysis with anti-Rpd3 antibody five times each for IME2- and SPO13-URS1 and obtained highly reproducible results. The reason for this discrepancy between Pnueli's result and ours is unknown. The major difference in the experimental conditions, in addition to the difference in strain backgrounds, is that Pneuli's group analyzed Rpd3 binding to the IME2 promoter by using the cells carrying IME2 on a high-copy-number vector, whereas we analyzed it on the genomic locus. There are a number of genes in yeast that require the Rpd3-Sin3 complex for repression and/or activation independently of Ume6 (2, 25, 26). Because a significant number of metabolic genes are transiently repressed at the early stage of meiosis (22), it is possible that the binding of the Rpd3-Sin3 complex to IME2-URS1 on a high-copy plasmid would decrease if the complex is required at a large number of loci at this stage.
What is the biological role for delaying the expression of IME2 from that of IME1?
One possible answer to this question is that this delay might ensure the accumulation of a sufficient amount of IME1 mRNA and then, as a result, that of IME2 mRNA. The IME1 expression is negatively regulated by IME2 in two ways. First, the expression of Ime2 leads to the eventual repression of IME1 transcription (31, 32); second, Ime2 phosphorylates Ime1 to target it for degradation (10). In the wild-type cells, the amounts of IME1 and IME2 mRNA reached values 1.3 times and 1.1 times higher than those of the control U3 RNA by 8-h and 10-h incubations in SPM, respectively (Fig. 5B). On the other hand, in the case of the sin3
cells, the maximal amounts of IME1 and IME2 mRNA were 90% and 60%, respectively, of the U3 RNA during the 8-h incubation in SPM. These results indicate that the expression of IME2 with early timing affected the levels of both IME1 and IME2 transcripts. Precise induction of defined sets of genes at specific stages of differentiation is particularly important for eukaryotes. The regulation of transcriptional activation involving the control of timing described here might also be functioning in higher eukaryotes.
Published ahead of print on 11 December 2006. ![]()
T.I. and M.Y. contributed equally to this work. ![]()
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