Two distinct promoter architectures centered on dynamic nucleosomes control ribosomal protein gene transcription
- Britta Knight1,
- Slawomir Kubik1,5,
- Bhaswar Ghosh2,5,
- Maria Jessica Bruzzone1,
- Marcel Geertz1,2,
- Victoria Martin1,
- Nicolas Dénervaud2,
- Philippe Jacquet3,
- Burak Ozkan1,4,
- Jacques Rougemont3,
- Sebastian J. Maerkl2,
- Félix Naef2 and
- David Shore1
- 1Department of Molecular Biology, National Centres of Competence in Research Program “Frontiers in Genetics,” Institute of Genetics and Genomics of Geneva (iGE3), University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland;
- 2The Institute of Bioengineering, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland;
- 3Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Core Facility, School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
- Corresponding author: david.shore{at}unige.ch
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↵5 These authors contributed equally to this work.
Abstract
In yeast, ribosome production is controlled transcriptionally by tight coregulation of the 138 ribosomal protein genes (RPGs). RPG promoters display limited sequence homology, and the molecular basis for their coregulation remains largely unknown. Here we identify two prevalent RPG promoter types, both characterized by upstream binding of the general transcription factor (TF) Rap1 followed by the RPG-specific Fhl1/Ifh1 pair, with one type also binding the HMG-B protein Hmo1. We show that the regulatory properties of the two promoter types are remarkably similar, suggesting that they are determined to a large extent by Rap1 and the Fhl1/Ifh1 pair. Rapid depletion experiments allowed us to define a hierarchy of TF binding in which Rap1 acts as a pioneer factor required for binding of all other TFs. We also uncovered unexpected features underlying recruitment of Fhl1, whose forkhead DNA-binding domain is not required for binding at most promoters, and Hmo1, whose binding is supported by repeated motifs. Finally, we describe unusually micrococcal nuclease (MNase)-sensitive nucleosomes at all RPG promoters, located between the canonical +1 and −1 nucleosomes, which coincide with sites of Fhl1/Ifh1 and Hmo1 binding. We speculate that these “fragile” nucleosomes play an important role in regulating RPG transcriptional output.
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Footnotes
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Supplemental material is available for this article.
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Article is online at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.244434.114.
- Received April 28, 2014.
- Accepted June 27, 2014.
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