1,720,992 research outputs found

    GCN5 enables HSP12 induction promoting chromatin remodeling not histone acetylation

    Full text link
    Regulation of stress responsive genes represents one of the best examples of gene induction and the relevance and involvement of different regulators may change for a given gene depending on the challenging stimulus. HSP12 gene is induced by very different stimuli, however the molecular response to the stress has been characterized in detail only for heat shock treatments. In this work we want to verify whether, the regulation of transcription induced by oxidative stress, utilizes the same epigenetic solutions relative to those employed in heat shock response. We also monitored HSP12 induction employing spermidine, a known acetyltransferase inhibitor, and observed an oxidative stress that synergizes with spermidine treatment. Our data show that during transcriptional response to H2O2, histone acetylation and chromatin remodeling occur. However, when the relevance of Gcn5p on these processes was studied, we observed that induction of transcription is GCN5 dependent and this does not rely on histone acetylation by Gcn5p despite its HAT activity. Chromatin remodeling accompanying gene activation is rather GCN5 dependent. Thus, GCN5 controls HSP12 transcription after H2O2 treatment by allowing chromatin remodeling and it is only partially involved in HSP12 histone acetylation regardless its HAT activity

    SIR2 modifies histone H4-K16 acetylation and affects superhelicity in the ARS region of plasmid chromatin in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

    No full text
    The null mutation of the SIR2 gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been associated with a series of different phenotypes including loss of transcriptional silencing, genome instability and replicative aging. Thus, the SIR2 gene product is an important constituent of the yeast cell. SIR2 orthologues and paralogues have been discovered in organisms ranging from bacteria to man, underscoring the pivotal role of this protein. Here we report that a plasmid introduced into sir2 Delta cells accumulates more negative supercoils compared to the same plasmid introduced into wild-type (WT) cells. This effect appears to be directly related to SIR2 expression as shown by the reduction of negative supercoiling when SIR2 is overexpressed, and does not depend on the number or positioning of nucleosomes on plasmids. Our results indicate that this new phenotype is due to the lack of Sir2p histone deacetylase activity in the sir2 Delta strain, because only the H4-K16 residue of the histone octamer undergoes an alteration of its acetylation state. A model proposing interference with the replication machinery is discussed

    FOB1 affects DNA topoisomerase I in vivo cleavages in the enhancer region of the S.cerevisiae ribosomal DNA locus.

    No full text
    In Saccharomyces cerevisiae the FOB1 gene affects replication fork blocking activity at the replication fork block (RFB) sequences and promotes recombination events within the rDNA cluster. Using in vivo footprinting assays we mapped two in vivo Fob1p-binding sites, RFB1 and RFB3, located in the rDNA enhancer region and coincident with those previously reported to be in vitro binding sites. We previously provided evidences that DNA topoisomerase I is able to cleave two sites within this region. The results reported in this paper, indicate that the DNA topoisomerase I cleavage specific activity at the enhancer region is affected by the presence of Fob1p and independent of replication and transcription activities. We thus hypothesize that the binding to DNA of Fob1p itself may be the cause of the DNA topoisomerase I activity in the rDNA enhancer

    Fob1p recruits DNA topoisomerase I to ribosomal genes locus and contributes to its transcriptional silencing maintenance

    No full text
    S. cerevisiae ribosomal DNA (rDNA) locus hosts a series of highly complex regulatory machineries for RNA polymerase I, II and III transcription, DNA replication and units recombination, all acting in the Non Transcribed Spacers (NTSs) interposed between the repeated units by which it is composed. DNA topoisomerase I (Top1p) contributes, recruiting Sir2p, to the maintenance of transcriptional silencing occurring at the RNA Polymerase II cryptic promoters, located in the NTS region. In this paper we found that Fob1p presence is crucial for Top1p recruitment at NTS, allowing transcriptional silencing to be established and maintained. We also showed the role of Nsr1p in Top1p recruitment to rDNA locus. Our work allows to hypothesize that Nsr1p targets Top1p into the nucleolus while Fob1p is responsible for its preferential distribution at RFB

    DNA protein interactions at the rRNA of saccharomyces cerevisiae

    No full text
    The rDNA cluster is the genetic locus encoding the ribosomal RNAs and physically defines where ribosomes begin to be assembled. In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the highly repetitive structure of this locus makes it a very interesting target for studies about genome stability, chromatin-mediated transcriptional silencing and progression of aging. In fact, recombination among the repeated units is suppressed in a WT cell. Moreover, when genes transcribed by RNA polymerase II are inserted in the rDNA cluster, their transcription is silenced. Finally, the formation of rDNA minicircles (ERCs) has been shown to be one of the causes of aging in yeast. DNA topoisomerase I have been shown to suppress recombination specifically at the rDNA of S.cerevisiae. Moreover, also the chromatin structure of this locus is affected in a top 1 strain, because rDNA specific transcriptional silencing is abolished. Nonetheless, the molecular basis of how this enzyme interferes with these functions is yet unknown. Here are reported results obtained by in vivo studies of DNA protein interactions occurring on the rDNA locus. The analyses include a fine mapping of nucleosome positioning; RNA polymerase I transcription factors and DNA topoisomerase I cleavage sites. Important conclusions can be drawn: i) nucleosome positioning in the Non Transcribed Spacer is not affected by RNA polymerase I transcription; ii) the RNA polymerase I transcription factors bind DNA in vivo with a defined hierarchy; iii) the DNA topoisomerase I cleaves the NTS in very specific sites, but cleavage is not induced by RNA polymerase I transcription. These in vivo studies help to characterize the molecular basis of important phenomena as the transcriptional silencing and genome stability in yeast
    corecore