Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications
Histone H2A.Z Cooperates with RNAi and Heterochromatin Factors to Suppress Antisense RNAs
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-17-2009
Journal Title
Nature
ISSN
1476-4687
Volume
461
Issue
7262
First Page
419
Last Page
422
DOI
10.1038/nature08321
PubMed ID
19693008
PubMed Central® ID
PMC2746258
Abstract
Eukaryotic transcriptomes are characterized by widespread transcription of noncoding and antisense RNAs, which is linked to key chromosomal processes, such as chromatin remodelling, gene regulation and heterochromatin assembly. However, these transcripts can be deleterious, and their accumulation is suppressed by several mechanisms including degradation by the nuclear exosome. The mechanisms by which cells differentiate coding RNAs from transcripts targeted for degradation are not clear. Here we show that the variant histone H2A.Z, which is loaded preferentially at the 5' ends of genes by the Swr1 complex containing a JmjC domain protein, mediates suppression of antisense transcripts in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe genome. H2A.Z is partially redundant in this regard with the Clr4 (known as SUV39H in mammals)-containing heterochromatin silencing complex that is also distributed at euchromatic loci, and with RNA interference component Argonaute (Ago1). Loss of Clr4 or Ago1 alone has little effect on antisense transcript levels, but cells lacking either of these factors and H2A.Z show markedly increased levels of antisense RNAs that are normally degraded by the exosome. These analyses suggest that as well as performing other functions, H2A.Z is a component of a genome indexing mechanism that cooperates with heterochromatin and RNAi factors to suppress read-through antisense transcripts.
Keywords
Argonaute proteins, cell cycle proteins, exosomes, gene expression regulation, fungal, histones, RNA, messenger
Recommended Citation
Zofall, Martin; Fischer, Tamás; Zhang, Ke; Zhou, Ming; Cui, Bowen; Veenstra, Timothy D.; and Grewal, Shiv I.S., "Histone H2A.Z Cooperates with RNAi and Heterochromatin Factors to Suppress Antisense RNAs" (2009). Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications. 274.
https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/pharmaceutical_sciences_publications/274