Alterations of lysine modifications on the histone H3 N-tail under drought stress conditions in Arabidopsis thaliana

Post-translational modification of histone N-tails affects eukaryotic gene activity. In Arabidopsis, the histone modification level correlates with gene activation and repression in vernalization and flowering processes, but there is little information on changes in histone modification status and nucleosome structure under abiotic stresses. We determined the temporal and spatial changes in nucleosome occupancy and levels of H3K4me3, H3K9ac, H3K14ac, H3K23ac and H3K27ac in the histone H3 N-tail on the regions of four Arabidopsis drought stress-inducible genes, RD29A, RD29B, RD20 and At2g20880 [corrected], under drought stress conditions by chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis. We found two types of regulatory mechanisms of nucleosome occupancy function in the drought stress response. For RD29A and RD29B genes, nucleosome occupancy of promoter regions is low compared with that of coding regions, and no notable nucleosome loss occurs under drought stress. In contrast, nucleosome density is gradually decreased in response to drought stress on RD20 and At2g20880 [corrected] genes. Enrichments of H3K4me3 and H3K9ac correlate with gene activation in response to drought stress in all four genes. Interestingly, establishment of H3K4me3 occurs after accumulation of RNAPII on the coding regions of RD29A and At2g20880 [corrected]. Enrichment of H3K23ac and H3K27ac occurs in response to drought stress on the coding regions of RD29B, RD20 and At2g20880 [corrected], but not on the coding region of At2g20880 [corrected]. Our results indicate that histone modifications on the H3 N-tail are altered with gene activation on the coding regions of drought stress-responsive genes under drought stress conditions and that several patterns of nucleosome changes function in the drought stress response.