Probing nucleosome core secondary structure before and after α-chymotrypsin treatment by raman spectroscopy and thermal denaturation

Nucleosome cores were digested with α-chymotrypsin until histone H3 was degraded to a partial histone, CP1. As we reported previously, cleavage occurred at leucine 20 to H3 and resulted in an increase in circular dichroism between 265 to 285 nm. Some modest core unfolding was also observed as determined by a small decrease in the sedimentation coefficient. Studies reported here deal with the analysis of core secondary structure and subsequent perturbation caused by treatment with α-chymotrypsin. Raman spectroscopy indicated that chymotryptic treatment promoted a change in the conformational environment of a population of core histone tyrosines. In addition, a shift from B-form to an intermediate B- or A-form was observed for core DNA. High-resolution thermal denaturation was used to determine alterations in the stabilization of core DNA related to perturbation of the core histones. Brief chymotryptic treatment indicated changes in both pre-melt and irreversible transitions.     

Immunobiochemical evidence for the loss of sperm specific histones during male pronucleus formation in monospermic zygotes of sea urchins

To obtain information on the remodeling of sperm chromatin during male pronuclei formation, we have followed the sperm specific histones (SpH) that form the nucleosomal core by Western immunoblot analysis with polyclonal antibodies directed against the core SpH. The results obtained indicate that the complete set of SpH is absent from zygote chromatin at the beginning of the first S phase. The disappearance of SpH is not coincidental for the five histone classes: SpH4 and SpH3 are lost 5-15 min post insemination (p.i.), SpH2B and SpH2A disappear 20-40 min p.i., and SpH1 is progressively diminished up to 30 min p.i. This order of sperm chromatin remodeling is not affected by the inhibition of protein synthesis by emetine, indicating that the factor(s) responsible for SpH disappearance are present in unfertilized eggs. The lost SpH's are not replaced by newly synthesized CS variants, since the basic proteins synthesized de novo during male pronuclei formation are not incorporated into chromatin remaining in the cytoplasm. These newly synthesized proteins are different from the CS variants as judged by their electrophoretic migration.     

Affinity isolation of active murine erythroleukemia cell chromatin: uniform distribution of ubiquitinated histone H2A between active and inactive fractions.

This laboratory recently reported the development of a biotin-cellulose/streptavidin affinity chromatography method based on the DNase I sensitivity of active chromatin to isolate a DNA fraction from murine erythroleukemia (MEL) cells that is more than 15-fold enriched in active genes (Dawson et al.: Journal of Biological Chemistry 264:12830-12837, 1989). We now report the extension of this technique to isolate and characterize chromatin that is enriched in active genes. In this approach, DNA in nuclei isolated from MEL cells was nicked with DNase I at a concentration that does not digest the active beta-globin gene, followed by repair of the nicks with a cleavable biotinylated nucleotide analog, 5-[(N-biotin-amido)hexanoamido-ethyl-1,3'-dithiopropionyl-3- aminoallyl]-2'- deoxyuridine 5'-triphosphate (Bio-19-SS-dUTP), during a nick-translation reaction. After shearing and sonication of the nuclei to solubilize chromatin, chromatin fragments containing biotin were separated from non-biotinylated fragments by sequential binding to streptavidin and biotin cellulose. The bound complex contained approximately 10% of the bulk DNA. Reduction of the disulfide bond in the biotinylated nucleotide eluted approximately one-half of the affinity isolated chromatin. Hybridization analysis of DNA revealed that whereas inactive albumin sequences were equally distributed among the chromatin fractions, virtually all of the active beta-globin sequences were associated with chromatin fragments which had bound to the affinity complex. Western blot assessment for ubiquitinate histones revealed that ubiquitinated histone H2A (uH2A) was uniformly distributed among active (bound) and inactive (unbound) chromatin fractions.     

基于ChIP-Seq进行肿瘤睾丸抗原XAGE-1b基因表达蛋白的DNA结合位点鉴定

XAGE-1b（X antigen family member 1B）属于XAGE亚家族,是一种肿瘤 睾丸抗原（cancer/testis antigen,CTA）,表达于正常人睾丸组织和多种类型的肿瘤细胞中.本实验室前期研究发现,该基因在涎腺腺样囊性癌高转移细胞系中呈高表达.为了进一步研究XAGE-1b下游调控基因,本实验采用ChIP Seq技术筛查XAGE 1b蛋白质可能存在的DNA结合片段. 结果发现,XAGE-1b下游调控基因富集于细胞分裂（cell division,P-Value＝7.95e-04）、细胞周期调控（cell cycle,P-Value＝5.532e-03）、及癌症相关基因（GESA/MSigDB module_11,P-Value＝2.010e-06）中．同时发现,XAGE-1b下游调控多个基因的表达产物（NCBI/interactions 22827,P-Value＝4.678e-06）能与原癌基因c-Myc的启动子抑制蛋白PUF60发生蛋白质相互作用,并通过qPCR进行了验证．这些研究对阐明XAGE-1b在肿瘤细胞的增殖和转移中的作用有重要意义.     

RNA Binding to CBP Stimulates Histone Acetylation and Transcription

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