Structural highlights
FunctionH3C_XENLA Core component of nucleosome. Nucleosomes wrap and compact DNA into chromatin, limiting DNA accessibility to the cellular machineries which require DNA as a template. Histones thereby play a central role in transcription regulation, DNA repair, DNA replication and chromosomal stability. DNA accessibility is regulated via a complex set of post-translational modifications of histones, also called histone code, and nucleosome remodeling. Publication Abstract from PubMedThe importance of histone variant H2A.Z in transcription regulation has been well established, yet its mechanism-of-action remains enigmatic. Conflicting evidence exists in support of both an activating and a repressive role of H2A.Z in transcription. Here we report cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structures of nucleosomes and chromatin fibers containing H2A.Z and those containing canonical H2A. The structures show that H2A.Z incorporation results in substantial structural changes in both nucleosome and chromatin fiber. While H2A.Z increases the mobility of DNA terminus in nucleosomes, it simultaneously enables nucleosome arrays to form a more regular and condensed chromatin fiber. We also demonstrated that H2A.Z's ability to enhance nucleosomal DNA mobility is largely attributed to its characteristic shorter C-terminus. Our study provides the structural basis for H2A.Z-mediated chromatin regulation, showing that the increase flexibility of the DNA termini in H2A.Z nucleosomes is central to its dual-functions in chromatin regulation and in transcription. Structural basis of chromatin regulation by histone variant H2A.Z.,Lewis TS, Sokolova V, Jung H, Ng H, Tan D Nucleic Acids Res. 2021 Nov 8;49(19):11379-11391. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkab907. PMID:34643712[1] From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. See AlsoReferences
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