- THIS ARTICLE
-
Abstract
- Full Text (PDF)
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- SERVICES
- Email this article to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Alert me to new issues of the journal
- Download to citation manager
- Reprints & Permissions
- CITING ARTICLES
- Citing Articles via HighWire
- Citing Articles via Google Scholar
- GOOGLE SCHOLAR
- Articles by Thompson, J. S.
- Articles by Grunstein, M.
- Search for Related Content
- PUBMED
- Articles by Thompson, J. S.
- Articles by Grunstein, M.
Identification of a Functional Domain Within the Essential Core of Histone H3 That Is Required for Telomeric and HM Silencing in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Jeffrey S. Thompsona, Marilyn L. Snowa, Summer Gilesa, Leslie E. McPhersona, and Michael Grunsteinba Department of Biology, Georgian Court College, Lakewood, New Jersey 08701
b Department of Biological Chemistry, UCLA School of Medicine and the Molecular Biology Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095
Corresponding author: Jeffrey S. Thompson, Georgian Court College, 900 Lakewood Ave., Lakewood, NJ 08701., thompsonj{at}georgian.edu (E-mail)
Communicating editor: L. PILLUS
| ABSTRACT |
|---|
Fourteen novel single-amino-acid substitution mutations in histone H3 that disrupt telomeric silencing in Saccharomyces cerevisiae were identified, 10 of which are clustered within the
1 helix and L1 loop of the essential histone fold. Several of these mutations cause derepression of silent mating locus HML, and an additional subset cause partial loss of basal repression at the GAL1 promoter. Our results identify a new domain within the essential core of histone H3 that is required for heterochromatin-mediated silencing.
CHROMATIN structure provides a key mechanism for the packaging of DNA into the confines of the nucleus, as well as a system for the global regulation of gene expression. Chromatin can exist in a range of structural conformations, from loosely compacted euchromatin to densely packed heterochromatin (![]()
Heterochromatin is found at a number of loci in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, including the silent mating loci and subtelomeric regions (![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
Histones are small basic proteins that assemble as an octamer around which
147 bp of DNA are wrapped to create the nucleosome (![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
Random mutagenesis of histone H3:
To better understand the role of histone H3 in chromatin-mediated silencing in yeast, we introduced random substitutions in histone H3 by mutagenic PCR to identify single-amino-acid changes that disrupt telomeric silencing. Candidates were screened for sensitivity to 5-fluoroorotic acid (5-FOA), indicating derepression of the telomere-associated URA3 reporter gene (which is normally silenced at this locus). Fourteen unique single-amino-acid substitution mutations in histone H3 were identified (Table 1). Four of the substitutions were conserved changes with respect to charge/polarity, while the others represented changes to charge or polarity. Ten of the 14 mutations mapped to a discrete region in the central core of H3 corresponding to the
1 helix and L1 loop (Fig 1A). Three mutations mapped to the N terminus, and one mutation localized to the C-terminal end of the
2 helix.
|
|
None of the H3 mutant strains exhibited any striking growth defects when grown at 30°, in contrast to the slow-growth phenotype of H3 N-terminal deletion and acetylatable lysine substitution strains (![]()
Analysis of telomeric silencing in histone H3 mutant strains:
To assess the degree of disruption to telomeric silencing by the H3 mutations, the mutant strains were plated on media with and without 5-FOA to determine the fraction of cells that were resistant to 5-FOA (i.e., cells in which URA3 is silenced). While the wild-type strain was largely resistant to 5-FOA, H3 mutant strains exhibited a range of sensitivities to 5-FOA, with the fraction of cells surviving on 5-FOA spanning from
0.001 to <10-6 (Table 1). These results indicate that the vast majority of cells within the respective mutant populations have disruptions to telomeric silencing, although some mutations clearly have more pronounced effects than others.
Histone H3 mutations affect silencing at HML:
Repression at the silent mating loci HML and HMR, which relies on a mechanism similar to that found at telomeric regions, is essential for haploid mating (![]()
- and a-mating-type regulatory genes, respectively. Derepression of these loci in haploid strains leads to simultaneous expression of both a- and
-genes, resulting in a nonmating phenotype (i.e., derepression of HML
causes sterility in a-mating-type strains). The degree of HM silencing is notably stronger and more stable compared to telomeric regions. As a result, some mutations that disrupt telomeric silencing do not cause a notable loss of repression at the HM loci. For example, deletion of the N terminus of histone H3 causes only a weak derepression at HML and has no obvious effect at HMR (![]()
![]()
To determine the effect of the histone H3 mutations on silencing at HML, histone H3 mutant strains (a-mating type) were subjected to a quantitative mating assay to determine the fraction of cells in a population that were able to mate. Six of the histone H3 mutant strains did not demonstrate any statistically significant mating defects (Table 1). Five strains exhibited statistically lower relative mating efficiencies (0.30.7), although the differences relative to the wild type were quite small. Three strains had more substantial defects in mating efficiency. Strains expressing the T80A and K79E substitutions exhibited 7- and 50-fold relative reductions in mating efficiency, respectively, while the E73D mutant strain mated more than 4 orders of magnitude less efficiently than the wild-type strain, consistent with strong derepression of HML. This mutation had a notably stronger effect on repression at HML than did H3 N-terminal deletions (![]()
![]()
![]()
A subset of histone H3 mutations affect basal repression at the GAL1 promoter:
We wished to determine if any of these histone H3 mutations caused generalized and pleiotropic effects on chromatin structure and gene regulation. To address this question, we utilized a reporter construct with the URA3 coding region under the control of the GAL1 promoter (![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
Histone H3 mutant strains possessing the GAL1-URA3 reporter were examined for 5-FOA sensitivity when grown in the presence of various carbon sources. As expected, all strains exhibited complete sensitivity to 5-FOA when grown in the presence of galactose (data not shown), indicating expression of GAL1-URA3. In the presence of raffinose, half of the strains exhibited a significant decrease in 5-FOA resistance (2.5- to 20-fold; Table 1), indicating a modest degree of expression from the GAL1 promoter. Most of these same mutations also caused low-level expression when the strains were grown in glucose, although the level of 5-FOA resistance was slightly higher in glucose-grown cells than in raffinose-grown cells. Two of these mutations (T6K and E73D) exhibited effects only in raffinose, suggesting that the degree of basal derepression is less pronounced in these two strains. In contrast, the other seven mutant strains displayed no statistically significant differences in 5-FOA sensitivity relative to the wild-type strain. While no strains displayed the extent of 5-FOA sensitivity observed in histone N-terminal deletion strains (![]()
| DISCUSSION |
|---|
Through random mutagenesis of histone H3, we have identified a domain within the structured core region that plays an essential role in telomeric and HM silencing in yeast. Mutation E73D in particular represents the strongest effect on HM silencing for any known H3 mutation. All of the mutated sites identified represent very highly conserved residues in H3 (![]()
![]()
1 helix and the adjacent L1 loop within the histone H3 fold motif (Fig 1A). We propose that the
1-L1 structure represents a distinct functional domain that plays a key role in silencing heterochromatin.
Many of the mutations identified (R2G, T6K, and A29V in the N terminus; Q68R, L70S, V71A, R72G, and E73D in the N-terminal end of the
1 helix; F84L in the L1 loop; and A114T in the
2 helix) exhibit a broad range of effects on telomeric silencing, cause minimal effects on silencing at HML (with the noteworthy exception of E73D), and tend to have effects on basal repression and growth at elevated temperatures. These observations suggest that these particular mutations affect generalized aspects of chromatin structure. These mutations may influence gene expression as a result of their effects on nucleosome structure and integrity via altered histone-DNA or histone-histone interactions. The N-terminal end of the
1 helix (residues 6569) serves as a DNA docking site, while the L1 loop (including F84) forms a ß-strand interaction with the H4 L2 loop (![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
In contrast, the mutations spanning amino acids 7680 within the
1-L1 domain appear to affect silencing in a specific manner. These mutations have very pronounced effects on telomeric and HML silencing, but have no obvious effect on basal repression and do not exhibit any apparent growth defects. While we cannot formally rule out indirect effects on silencing by these mutations as suggested above, given these observations, we believe that the C-terminal portion of
1 and the L1 loop play a distinct role in silencing. The side chains of residues 76, 79, and 80 are all exposed on the nucleosome surface (Fig 1B), suggesting that they are involved in silencing protein interactions.
Since the initial submission of this manuscript, the role of the H3
1-L1 silencing domain described here has been substantiated by experiments demonstrating that K79 is methylated by Dot1p in yeast (![]()
![]()
![]()
1-L1 domain (Fig 1B), it is reasonable to speculate that the Sir proteins interact with a noncontiguous histone-binding site encompassing the H3 and H4 N termini and the H3
1-L1 domain. It is worth noting that K79 is part of a cluster of three closely positioned lysine residues on the nucleosome surface (including K77 and K79 in the L2 loop of histone H4; Fig 1B), suggesting that multiple core domain modifications may play a role in modulating these interactions.
Our results also suggest that the
1-L1 domain possesses an additional silencing function that has yet to be elucidated. This is supported by the E73D mutation, which has a much stronger effect on silencing at HML than do any of the other mutations in this domain, indicating that E73 must play another role in silencing in addition to any possible role it might play in K79 methylation. E73 is oriented with its side chain in close proximity to the H4 N terminus, potentially capable of forming hydrogen bonds with residues N25 and I26 (Fig 1B). The E73D substitution may shorten the side chain enough (
1.5 Å) to disrupt necessary interactions between the H4 N terminus and the H3
1 helix. This putative interaction may play an additional role in the proposed noncontiguous Sir-binding site described above, or it may function as a recognition site for enzymes that modify histone H4 N-terminal residues. It will be of interest to see if the modification state of the histone H4 N terminus is affected by any of these substitution mutations.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
|---|
We thank D. Gottschling, R. Mann, F. Lenfant, and A. Carmen for plasmid and strain contributions; A. McGough, S. Iorio, C. Ferrier, S. Ossimina, and H. Thomas for technical and administrative assistance; the students of J.S.T.'s BI601 Advanced Molecular Genetics course (19982000) for their contributions to this work; and S. Cole for many helpful discussions and critical evaluation of this manuscript.
Manuscript received July 11, 2002; Accepted for publication October 7, 2002.
| LITERATURE CITED |
|---|
APARICIO, O. M., B. L. BILLINGTON, and D. E. GOTTSCHLING, 1991 Modifiers of position effect are shared between telomeric and silent mating-type loci in S. cerevisiae. Cell 66:1279-1287.[Medline]
BERGER, S. L., 2002 Histone modifications in transcriptional regulation. Curr. Opin. Genet. Dev. 12:142-148.[Medline]
BRAUNSTEIN, M., A. B. ROSE, S. G. HOLMES, C. D. ALLIS, and J. R. BROACH, 1993 Transcriptional silencing in yeast is associated with reduced nucleosome acetylation. Genes Dev. 7:592-604.
BRAUNSTEIN, M., R. E. SOBEL, C. D. ALLIS, B. M. TURNER, and J. R. BROACH, 1996 Efficient transcriptional silencing in Saccharomyces cerevisiae requires a heterochromatin histone acetylation pattern. Mol. Cell. Biol. 16:4349-4356.[Abstract]
CARMEN, A. A., L. MILNE, and M. GRUNSTEIN, 2002 Acetylation of the yeast histone H4 N terminus regulates its binding to heterochromatin protein SIR3. J. Biol. Chem. 277:4778-4781.
FENG, Q., H. H. NG, H. ERDJUMENT-BROMAGE, P. TEMPST, and K. STRUHL et al., 2002 Methylation of H3-lysine 79 is mediated by a new family of HMTases without a SET domain. Curr. Biol. 12:1052-1058.[Medline]
GASSER, S. M. and M. M. COCKELL, 2001 The molecular biology of the SIR proteins. Gene 279:1-16.[Medline]
GOTTSCHLING, D. E., 1992 Telomere-proximal DNA in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is refractory to methyltransferase activity in vivo. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 89:4062-4065.
GOTTSCHLING, D. E., O. M. APARICIO, B. L. BILLINGTON, and V. A. ZAKIAN, 1990 Position effect at S. cerevisiae telomeres: reversible repression of Pol II transcription. Cell 63:751-762.[Medline]
HECHT, A., T. LAROCHE, S. STRAHL-BOLSINGER, S. M. GASSER, and M. GRUNSTEIN, 1995 Histone H3 and H4 N-termini interact with SIR3 and SIR4 proteins: a molecular model for the formation of heterochromatin in yeast. Cell 80:583-592.[Medline]
HECHT, A., S. STRAHL-BOLSINGER, and M. GRUNSTEIN, 1996 Spreading of transcriptional repressor SIR3 from telomeric heterochromatin. Nature 383:92-96.[Medline]
JENUWEIN, T. and C. D. ALLIS, 2001 Translating the histone code. Science 293:1074-1080.
JOHNSON, L. M., P. S. KAYNE, E. S. KAHN, and M. GRUNSTEIN, 1990 Genetic evidence for an interaction between SIR3 and histone H4 in the repression of the silent mating loci in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 87:6286-6290.
JOHNSON, L. M., G. FISHER-ADAMS, and M. GRUNSTEIN, 1992 Identification of a non-basic domain in the histone H4 N-terminus required for repression of the yeast silent mating loci. EMBO J. 11:2201-2209.[Medline]
KAYNE, P. S., U. J. KIM, M. HAN, J. R. MULLEN, and F. YOSHIZAKI et al., 1988 Extremely conserved histone H4 N terminus is dispensable for growth but essential for repressing the silent mating loci in yeast. Cell 55:27-39.[Medline]
KROGAN, N. J., J. DOVER, S. KHORRAMI, J. F. GREENBLATT, and J. SCHNEIDER et al., 2002 COMPASS, a histone H3 (Lysine 4) methyltransferase required for telomeric silencing of gene expression. J. Biol. Chem. 277:10753-10755.
KRUGER, W., C. L. PETERSON, A. SIL, C. COBURN, and G. ARENTS et al., 1995 Amino acid substitutions in the structured domains of histones H3 and H4 partially relieve the requirement of the yeast SWI/SNF complex for transcription. Genes Dev. 9:2770-2779.
LAURENSON, P. and J. RINE, 1992 Silencers, silencing, and heritable transcriptional states. Microbiol. Rev. 56:543-560.
LENFANT, F., R. K. MANN, B. THOMSEN, X. LING, and M. GRUNSTEIN, 1996 All four core histone N-termini contain sequences required for the repression of basal transcription in yeast. EMBO J. 15:3974-3985.[Medline]
LOHR, D., P. VENKOV, and J. ZLATANOVA, 1995 Transcriptional regulation in the yeast GAL gene family: a complex genetic network. FASEB J. 9:777-787.[Abstract]
LOO, S. and J. RINE, 1994 Silencers and domains of generalized repression. Science 264:1768-1771.
LUGER, K., A. W. MADER, R. K. RICHMOND, D. F. SARGENT, and T. J. RICHMOND, 1997 Crystal structure of the nucleosome core particle at 2.8 Å resolution. Nature 389:251-260.[Medline]
LUSTIG, A. J., 1998 Mechanisms of silencing in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Curr. Opin. Genet. Dev. 8:233-239.[Medline]
MANN, R. K. and M. GRUNSTEIN, 1992 Histone H3 N-terminal mutations allow hyperactivation of the yeast GAL1 gene in vivo. EMBO J. 11:3297-3306.[Medline]
MULRAD, D., R. HUNTER, and R. PARKER, 1992 A rapid method for localized mutagenesis of yeast genes. Yeast 8:79-82.[Medline]
NG, H. H., Q. FENG, H. WANG, H. ERDJUMENT-BROMAGE, and P. TEMPST et al., 2002 Lysine methylation within the globular domain of histone H3 by Dot1 is important for telomeric silencing and Sir protein association. Genes Dev. 16:1518-1527.
PARK, E. C. and J. W. SZOSTAK, 1990 Point mutations in the yeast histone H4 gene prevent silencing of the silent mating type locus HML. Mol. Cell. Biol. 10:4932-4934.
PRELICH, G. and F. WINSTON, 1993 Mutations that suppress the deletion of an upstream activating sequence in yeast: involvement of a protein kinase and histone H3 in repressing transcription in vivo. Genetics 135:665-676.[Abstract]
RAVINDRA, A., K. WEISS, and R. T. SIMPSON, 1999 High-resolution structural analysis of chromatin at specific loci: Saccharomyces cerevisiae silent mating-type locus HMRa. Mol. Cell. Biol. 19:7944-7950.
SANTISTEBAN, M. S., G. ARENTS, E. N. MOUDRIANAKIS, and M. M. SMITH, 1997 Histone octamer function in vivo: mutations in the dimer-tetramer interfaces disrupt both gene activation and repression. EMBO J. 16:2493-2506.[Medline]
SINGH, J. and A. J. KLAR, 1992 Active genes in budding yeast display enhanced in vivo accessibility to foreign DNA methylases: a novel in vivo probe for chromatin structure of yeast. Genes Dev. 6:186-196.
SOBOLEV, V., A. SOROKINE, J. PRILUSKY, E. E. ABOLA, and M. EDELMAN, 1999 Automated analysis of interatomic contacts in proteins. Bioinformatics 15:327-332.
STRAHL-BOLSINGER, S., A. HECHT, K. LUO, and M. GRUNSTEIN, 1997 SIR2 and SIR4 interactions differ in core and extended telomeric heterochromatin in yeast. Genes Dev. 11:83-93.
SUKA, N., Y. SUKA, A. A. CARMEN, J. WU, and M. GRUNSTEIN, 2001 Highly specific antibodies determine histone acetylation site usage in yeast heterochromatin and euchromatin. Mol. Cell 8:473-479.[Medline]
THOMPSON, J. S., X. LING, and M. GRUNSTEIN, 1994 Histone H3 amino terminus is required for telomeric and silent mating locus repression in yeast. Nature 369:245-247.[Medline]
TURNER, B. M., 2001 Chromatin and Gene Regulation: Molecular Mechanisms in Epigenetics. Blackwell Science, Oxford.
VAN LEEUWEN, F., P. R. GAFKEN, and D. E. GOTTSCHLING, 2002 Dot1p modulates silencing in yeast by methylation of the nucleosome core. Cell 109:745-756.[Medline]
WEISS, K. and R. T. SIMPSON, 1998 High-resolution structural analysis of chromatin at specific loci: Saccharomyces cerevisiae silent mating type locus HMLalpha. Mol. Cell. Biol. 18:5392-5403.
WELLS, D. and D. BROWN, 1991 Histone and histone gene compilation and alignment update. Nucleic Acids Res. 19(Suppl.):2173-2188.[Medline]
WELLS, D. and C. MCBRIDE, 1989 A comprehensive compilation and alignment of histones and histone genes. Nucleic Acids Res. 17(Suppl.):311-346.
WHITE, C. L., R. K. SUTO, and K. LUGER, 2001 Structure of the yeast nucleosome core particle reveals fundamental changes in internucleosome interactions. EMBO J. 20:5207-5218.[Medline]
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
V. Sampath, P. Yuan, I. X. Wang, E. Prugar, F. van Leeuwen, and R. Sternglanz Mutational Analysis of the Sir3 BAH Domain Reveals Multiple Points of Interaction with Nucleosomes Mol. Cell. Biol., May 15, 2009; 29(10): 2532 - 2545. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
H. Huang, A. M. Maertens, E. M. Hyland, J. Dai, A. Norris, J. D. Boeke, and J. S. Bader HistoneHits: A database for histone mutations and their phenotypes Genome Res., April 1, 2009; 19(4): 674 - 681. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
L. H. Apponi, S. M. Kelly, M. T. Harreman, A. N. Lehner, A. H. Corbett, and S. R. Valentini An Interaction between Two RNA Binding Proteins, Nab2 and Pub1, Links mRNA Processing/Export and mRNA Stability Mol. Cell. Biol., September 15, 2007; 27(18): 6569 - 6579. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
K. Matsubara, N. Sano, T. Umehara, and M. Horikoshi Global analysis of functional surfaces of core histones with comprehensive point mutants. Genes Cells, January 1, 2007; 12(1): 13 - 33. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
C. J. Fry, A. Norris, M. Cosgrove, J. D. Boeke, and C. L. Peterson The LRS and SIN Domains: Two Structurally Equivalent but Functionally Distinct Nucleosomal Surfaces Required for Transcriptional Silencing Mol. Cell. Biol., December 1, 2006; 26(23): 9045 - 9059. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
J. J. Connelly, P. Yuan, H.-C. Hsu, Z. Li, R.-M. Xu, and R. Sternglanz Structure and Function of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Sir3 BAH Domain Mol. Cell. Biol., April 15, 2006; 26(8): 3256 - 3265. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
A. A. Duina and F. Winston Analysis of a Mutant Histone H3 That Perturbs the Association of Swi/Snf with Chromatin Mol. Cell. Biol., January 15, 2004; 24(2): 561 - 572. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
- THIS ARTICLE
-
Abstract
- Full Text (PDF)
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- SERVICES
- Email this article to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Alert me to new issues of the journal
- Download to citation manager
- Reprints & Permissions
- CITING ARTICLES
- Citing Articles via HighWire
- Citing Articles via Google Scholar
- GOOGLE SCHOLAR
- Articles by Thompson, J. S.
- Articles by Grunstein, M.
- Search for Related Content
- PUBMED
- Articles by Thompson, J. S.
- Articles by Grunstein, M.



