Binding of the transcription factor Atf1 to promoters serves as a barrier to phase nucleosome arrays and avoid cryptic transcription. Issue 16 (13th August 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: García, Patricia; Paulo, Esther; Gao, Jun; Wahls, Wayne P.; Ayté, José; Lowy, Ernesto; Hidalgo, Elena
• Is Part Of: Nucleic acids research. Volume 42:Issue 16(2014)
• Page Start: 10351
• Page End: 10359
• Publication Date: 2014-08-13
• Subjects: Nucleic acids -- Periodicals; Molecular biology -- Periodicals; 572.805
• DOI: 10.1093/nar/gku704
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0305-1048

Abstract

Abstract: Schizosaccharomyces pombe displays a large transcriptional response common to several stress conditions, regulated primarily by the transcription factor Atf1. Atf1-dependent promoters contain especially broad nucleosome depleted regions (NDRs) prior to stress imposition. We show here that basal binding of Atf1 to these promoters competes with histones to create wider NDRs at stress genes. Moreover, deletion of atf1 results in nucleosome disorganization specifically at stress coding regions and derepresses antisense transcription. Our data indicate that the transcription factor binding to promoters acts as an effective barrier to fix the +1 nucleosome and phase downstream nucleosome arrays to prevent cryptic transcription.