Nucleosomes as allosteric scaffolds for genetic regulation. (June 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Takada, Shoji; Brandani, Giovanni B; Tan, Cheng
• Is Part Of: Current opinion in structural biology. Volume 62(2020)
• Page Start: 93
• Page End: 101
• Publication Date: 2020-06
• Subjects: Molecular biology -- Periodicals; 570
• DOI: 10.1016/j.sbi.2019.11.013
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0959-440X

Abstract

Highlights: Nucleosomes exhibit diverse types of motion, such as sliding, DNA unwrapping, and disassembly. The energy landscape of nucleosomes contains multitude of metastable states. Binding of transcription factors to the nucleosome changes its structure, altering its action. ATP-dependent chromatin remodelers induce DNA deformation, which propagates throughout the nucleosome. Abstract : Nucleosomes are stable yet highly dynamic complexes exhibiting diverse types of motions, such as sliding, DNA unwrapping, and disassembly, encoding a landscape with a large number of metastable states. In this review, describing recent studies on these nucleosome structure changes, we propose that the nucleosome can be viewed as an ideal allosteric scaffold: regulated by effector molecules such as transcription factors and chromatin remodelers, the nucleosome controls the downstream gene activity. Binding of transcription factors to the nucleosome can enhance DNA unwrapping or slide the DNA, altering either the binding or the unbinding of other transcription factors to nearby sites. ATP-dependent chromatin remodelers induce a series of DNA deformations, which allosterically propagate throughout the nucleosome to induce DNA sliding or histone exchange.