scholarly journals Transcription by an Archaeal RNA Polymerase Is Slowed but Not Blocked by an Archaeal Nucleosome

2004 ◽  
Vol 186 (11) ◽  
pp. 3492-3498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunwei Xie ◽  
John N. Reeve

ABSTRACT Archaeal RNA polymerases (RNAPs) are closely related to eukaryotic RNAPs, and in Euryarchaea, genomic DNA is wrapped and compacted by histones into archaeal nucleosomes. In eukaryotes, transcription of DNA bound into nucleosomes is facilitated by histone tail modifications and chromatin remodeling complexes, but archaeal histones do not have histone tails and archaeal genome sequences provide no evidence for archaeal homologs of eukaryotic chromatin remodeling complexes. We have therefore investigated the ability of an archaeal RNAP, purified from Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus, to transcribe DNA bound into an archaeal nucleosome by HMtA2, an archaeal histone from M. thermautotrophicus. To do so, we constructed a template that allows transcript elongation to be separated from transcription initiation, on which archaeal nucleosome assembly is positioned downstream from the site of transcription initiation. At 58°C, in the absence of an archaeal nucleosome, M. thermautotrophicus RNAP transcribed this template DNA at a rate of ∼20 nucleotides per second. With an archaeal nucleosome present, transcript elongation was slowed but not blocked, with transcription pausing at sites before and within the archaeal nucleosome. With additional HMtA2 binding, complexes were obtained that also incorporated the upstream regulatory region. This inhibited transcription presumably by preventing archaeal TATA-box binding protein, general transcription factor TFB, and RNAP access and thus inhibiting transcription initiation.

2004 ◽  
Vol 186 (18) ◽  
pp. 6306-6310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunwei Xie ◽  
John N. Reeve

ABSTRACT Transcription initiation in Archaea requires the assembly of a preinitiation complex containing the TATA- box binding protein (TBP), transcription factor B (TFB), and RNA polymerase (RNAP). The results reported establish the fate of Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus TBP and TFB following transcription initiation by M. thermautotrophicus RNAP in vitro. TFB is released after initiation, during extension of the transcript from 4 to 24 nucleotides, but TBP remains bound to the template DNA. Regulation of archaeal transcription initiation by a repressor competition with TBP for TATA-box region binding must accommodate this observation.


Cells ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 1621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Aslam ◽  
Beenish Fakher ◽  
Bello Hassan Jakada ◽  
Shijiang Cao ◽  
Yuan Qin

The nucleosome is the structural and fundamental unit of eukaryotic chromatin. The chromatin remodeling complexes change nucleosome composition, packaging and positioning to regulate DNA accessibility for cellular machinery. SWI2/SNF2-Related 1 Chromatin Remodeling Complex (SWR1-C) belongs to the INO80 chromatin remodeling family and mainly catalyzes the exchange of H2A-H2B with the H2A.Z-H2B dimer. The replacement of H2A.Z into nucleosomes affects nucleosome stability and chromatin structure. Incorporation of H2A.Z into the chromatin and its physiochemical properties play a key role in transcriptional regulation during developmental and environmental responses. In Arabidopsis, various studies have uncovered several pivotal roles of SWR1-C. Recently, notable progress has been achieved in understanding the role of SWR1-C in plant developmental and physiological processes such as DNA damage repair, stress tolerance, and flowering time. The present article introduces the SWR1-C and comprehensively reviews recent discoveries made in understanding the function of the SWR1 complex in plants.


2005 ◽  
Vol 187 (18) ◽  
pp. 6419-6429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunwei Xie ◽  
John N. Reeve

ABSTRACT Conserved trp genes encode enzymes that catalyze tryptophan biosynthesis in all three biological domains, and studies of their expression in Bacteria and eukaryotes have revealed a variety of different regulatory mechanisms. The results reported here provide the first detailed description of an archaeal trp gene regulatory system. We have established that the trpEGCFBAD operon in Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus is transcribed divergently from a gene (designated trpY) that encodes a tryptophan-sensitive transcription regulator. TrpY binds to TRP box sequences (consensus, TGTACA) located in the overlapping promoter regions between trpY and trpE, inhibiting trpY transcription in the absence of tryptophan and both trpY and trpEGCFBAD transcription in the presence of tryptophan. TrpY apparently inhibits trpY transcription by blocking RNA polymerase access to the site of trpY transcription initiation and represses trpEGCFBAD transcription by preventing TATA box binding protein (TBP) binding to the TATA box sequence. Given that residue 2 (W2) is the only tryptophan in TrpY and in TrpY homologues in other Euryarchaea and that there is only one tryptophan codon in the entire trpEGCFBAD operon (trpB encodes W175), expression of the trp operon may also be regulated in vivo by the supply of charged tRNATrp available to translate the second codon of the trpY mRNA.


2021 ◽  
Vol 90 (1) ◽  
pp. 193-219
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Compe ◽  
Jean-Marc Egly

In eukaryotes, transcription of protein-coding genes requires the assembly at core promoters of a large preinitiation machinery containing RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) and general transcription factors (GTFs). Transcription is potentiated by regulatory elements called enhancers, which are recognized by specific DNA-binding transcription factors that recruit cofactors and convey, following chromatin remodeling, the activating cues to the preinitiation complex. This review summarizes nearly five decades of work on transcription initiation by describing the sequential recruitment of diverse molecular players including the GTFs, the Mediator complex, and DNA repair factors that support RNAPII to enable RNA synthesis. The elucidation of the transcription initiation mechanism has greatly benefited from the study of altered transcription components associated with human diseases that could be considered transcription syndromes.


Circulation ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (Suppl_3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Callie Kwartler ◽  
Shuangtao Ma ◽  
Caroline Kernell ◽  
Xue-yan Duan ◽  
Charis Wang ◽  
...  

Actin genes encode for cytoskeletal proteins that polymerize to function in cellular motility, adhesion, and contraction. In mammalian cells, ubiquitously expressed β-actin also moves into the nucleus and associates with chromatin remodeling complexes, however a nuclear function of muscle-specific α-actins has not been previously assessed. We hypothesized that smooth muscle α-actin (SMA) plays a role in chromatin remodeling during the differentiation of smooth muscle cells (SMCs) to enable cell fate specification of SMCs. In explanted SMCs from human and mouse ascending aortas, cell fractionation and 2D gel electrophoresis identify both SMA and β-actin in the nuclear lysates. Nuclear SMA but not β-actin accumulates with SMC differentiation driven by serum starvation and transforming growth factor-β1 treatment. SMA accumulates into the nucleus early in the differentiation of SMCs from neural crest progenitor cells, prior to cytosolic accumulation. Immunoprecipitation studies show that SMA binds specifically to the INO80 and the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complexes, and this binding increases with SMC differentiation. Chromatin immunoprecipitation reveals that SMA is bound to the promoters of SMC-specific genes, including Acta2 , Cnn1, and Myh11 and that SMA is enriched over β-actin at these promoters with SMC differentiation. Finally, overexpression of SMA tagged with a nuclear localization sequence (NLS) in multiple cell types increases expression of SMC markers, whereas NLS-tagged β-actin localizes to the nucleus to the same extent but does not increase SMC marker expression in any cell type. Finally, we assessed whether skeletal muscle α-actin (SKA) and cardiac muscle α-actin (CMA) may play a similar role in skeletal and cardiac muscle cells. Both SKA and CMA translocate into the nucleus. CMA accumulates into the nucleus early in the differentiation of cardiomyocytes from pluripotent stem cells. Immunoprecipitation reveals that SKA binds to the SWI/SNF complex in differentiated C2C12 myotube cell cultures. These data support that nuclear SMA enriches with and participates in SMC differentiation, and suggest a potential nuclear role for other muscle specific α-actins in developing muscle cells.


1994 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 189-199
Author(s):  
D S Pederson ◽  
T Fidrych

After each round of replication, new transcription initiation complexes must assemble on promoter DNA. This process may compete with packaging of the same promoter sequences into nucleosomes. To elucidate interactions between regulatory transcription factors and nucleosomes on newly replicated DNA, we asked whether heat shock factor (HSF) could be made to bind to nucleosomal DNA in vivo. A heat shock element (HSE) was embedded at either of two different sites within a DNA segment that directs the formation of a stable, positioned nucleosome. The resulting DNA segments were coupled to a reporter gene and transfected into the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Transcription from these two plasmid constructions after induction by heat shock was similar in amount to that from a control plasmid in which HSF binds to nucleosome-free DNA. High-resolution genomic footprint mapping of DNase I and micrococcal nuclease cleavage sites indicated that the HSE in these two plasmids was, nevertheless, packaged in a nucleosome. The inclusion of HSE sequences within (but relatively close to the edge of) the nucleosome did not alter the position of the nucleosome which formed with the parental DNA fragment. Genomic footprint analyses also suggested that the HSE-containing nucleosome was unchanged by the induction of transcription. Quantitative comparisons with control plasmids ruled out the possibility that HSF was bound only to a small fraction of molecules that might have escaped nucleosome assembly. Analysis of the helical orientation of HSE DNA in the nucleosome indicated that HSF contacted DNA residues that faced outward from the histone octamer. We discuss the significance of these results with regard to the role of nucleosomes in inhibiting transcription and the normal occurrence of nucleosome-free regions in promoters.


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