Nucleosome recognition and spacing by chromatin remodelling factor ISW1a

Nucleosomes are actively positioned along DNA by ATP-dependent, chromatin remodelling factors. A structural model for the ISW1a chromatin remodelling factor from Saccharomyces cerevisiae in complex with a dinucleosome substrate was constructed from the X-ray structures of ISW1a (ΔATPase) with and without DNA bound, two different cryo-EM (cryo-electron microscopy) structures of ISW1a (ΔATPase) bound to a nucleosome, and site-directed photo-cross-linking analyses in solution. The X-ray structure of ISW1a (ΔATPase) with DNA bound suggests that DNA sequence may be involved in nucleosome recognition and thereby specificity of promoter interaction. The model suggests how the highly ordered nucleosome arrays observed by mapping nucleosomes in genes and their promoter regions could be generated by a chromatin remodelling factor.     

The chromatin structure at the promoter of a glyceraldehyde phosphate dehydrogenase gene from Saccharomyces cerevisiae reflects its functional state.

The chromatin structure of TDH3, one of three genes encoding glyceraldehyde phosphate dehydrogenases in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, was analyzed by nuclease digestion. A large hypersensitive region was found at the TDH3 promoter extending from the RNA initiation site at position -40 to position -560. This hypersensitive domain is nucleosome free and includes all putative cis-acting regulatory DNA elements. It is equally present in cells grown on fermentable as well as nonfermentable carbon sources. In a mutant which lacks the trans-activating protein GCR1 and which as a consequence expresses TDH3 at less than 5% of the wild-type level, the chromatin structure is different. Hypersensitivity between -40 and -370 is lost, due to the deposition of nucleosomes on a stretch that is nucleosome free in wild-type cells. Hypersensitivity is retained, however, further upstream (from -370 to -560). A similarly altered chromatin structure, as in a ger1 mutant, is found in wild-type cells when they approach stationary phase. This is the first evidence for a growth-dependent regulation of the TDH3 promoter.