1
|
Portillo-Ledesma S, Wagley M, Schlick T. Chromatin transitions triggered by LH density as epigenetic regulators of the genome. Nucleic Acids Res 2022; 50:10328-10342. [PMID: 36130289 PMCID: PMC9561278 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkac757] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2022] [Revised: 07/26/2022] [Accepted: 09/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Motivated by experiments connecting linker histone (LH) deficiency to lymphoma progression and retinal disorders, we study by mesoscale chromatin modeling how LH density (ρ) induces gradual, as well sudden, changes in chromatin architecture and how the process depends on DNA linker length, LH binding dynamics and binding mode, salt concentration, tail modifications, and combinations of ρ and linker DNA length. We show that ρ tightly regulates the overall shape and compaction of the fiber, triggering a transition from an irregular disordered state to a compact and ordered structure. Such a structural transition, resembling B to A compartment transition connected with lymphoma of B cells, appears to occur around ρ = 0.5. The associated mechanism is DNA stem formation by LH binding, which is optimal when the lengths of the DNA linker and LH C-terminal domain are similar. Chromatin internal and external parameters are key regulators, promoting or impeding the transition. The LH density thus emerges as a critical tunable variable in controlling cellular functions through structural transitions of the genome.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Stephanie Portillo-Ledesma
- Department of Chemistry, New York University, 1001 Silver, 100 Washington Square East, New York, NY 10003, USA
| | - Meghna Wagley
- Department of Chemistry, New York University, 1001 Silver, 100 Washington Square East, New York, NY 10003, USA
| | - Tamar Schlick
- Department of Chemistry, New York University, 1001 Silver, 100 Washington Square East, New York, NY 10003, USA.,New York University-East China Normal University Center for Computational Chemistry at New York University Shanghai, Room 340, Geography Building, 3663 North Zhongshan Road, Shanghai 200062, China.,Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, 251 Mercer St, New York, NY 10012, USA.,Simons Center for Computational Physical Chemistry, 24 Waverly Place, Silver Building, New York University, New York, NY 10003 USA
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Bendandi A, Dante S, Zia SR, Diaspro A, Rocchia W. Chromatin Compaction Multiscale Modeling: A Complex Synergy Between Theory, Simulation, and Experiment. Front Mol Biosci 2020; 7:15. [PMID: 32158765 PMCID: PMC7051991 DOI: 10.3389/fmolb.2020.00015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2019] [Accepted: 01/27/2020] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Understanding the mechanisms that trigger chromatin compaction, its patterns, and the factors they depend on, is a fundamental and still open question in Biology. Chromatin compacts and reinforces DNA and is a stable but dynamic structure, to make DNA accessible to proteins. In recent years, computational advances have provided larger amounts of data and have made large-scale simulations more viable. Experimental techniques for the extraction and reconstitution of chromatin fibers have improved, reinvigorating theoretical and experimental interest in the topic and stimulating debate on points previously considered as certainties regarding chromatin. A great assortment of approaches has emerged, from all-atom single-nucleosome or oligonucleosome simulations to various degrees of coarse graining, to polymer models, to fractal-like structures and purely topological models. Different fiber-start patterns have been studied in theory and experiment, as well as different linker DNA lengths. DNA is a highly charged macromolecule, making ionic and electrostatic interactions extremely important for chromatin topology and dynamics. Indeed, the repercussions of varying ionic concentration have been extensively examined at the computational level, using all-atom, coarse-grained, and continuum techniques. The presence of high-curvature AT-rich segments in DNA can cause conformational variations, attesting to the fact that the role of DNA is both structural and electrostatic. There have been some tentative attempts to describe the force fields governing chromatin conformational changes and the energy landscapes of these transitions, but the intricacy of the system has hampered reaching a consensus. The study of chromatin conformations is an intrinsically multiscale topic, influenced by a wide range of biological and physical interactions, spanning from the atomic to the chromosome level. Therefore, powerful modeling techniques and carefully planned experiments are required for an overview of the most relevant phenomena and interactions. The topic provides fertile ground for interdisciplinary studies featuring a synergy between theoretical and experimental scientists from different fields and the cross-validation of respective results, with a multi-scale perspective. Here, we summarize some of the most representative approaches, and focus on the importance of electrostatics and solvation, often overlooked aspects of chromatin modeling.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Artemi Bendandi
- Physics Department, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy
- Nanophysics & NIC@IIT, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa, Italy
| | - Silvia Dante
- Nanophysics & NIC@IIT, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa, Italy
| | - Syeda Rehana Zia
- Dr. Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan
| | - Alberto Diaspro
- Physics Department, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy
- Nanophysics & NIC@IIT, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa, Italy
| | - Walter Rocchia
- Concept Lab, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Dynamic chromatin organization in the cell. Essays Biochem 2019; 63:133-145. [PMID: 30967477 DOI: 10.1042/ebc20180054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/24/2018] [Revised: 03/13/2019] [Accepted: 03/19/2019] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
The organization and regulation of genomic DNA as nuclear chromatin is necessary for proper DNA function inside living eukaryotic cells. While this has been extensively explored, no true consensus is currently reached regarding the exact mechanism of chromatin organization. The traditional view has assumed that the DNA is packaged into a hierarchy of structures inside the nucleus based on the regular 30-nm chromatin fiber. This is currently being challenged by the fluid-like model of the chromatin which views the chromatin as a dynamic structure based on the irregular 10-nm fiber. In this review, we focus on the recent progress in chromatin structure elucidation highlighting the paradigm shift in chromatin folding mechanism from the classical textbook perspective of the regularly folded chromatin to the more dynamic fluid-like perspective.
Collapse
|
4
|
Brunet FG, Audit B, Drillon G, Argoul F, Volff JN, Arneodo A. Evidence for DNA Sequence Encoding of an Accessible Nucleosomal Array across Vertebrates. Biophys J 2018; 114:2308-2316. [PMID: 29580552 PMCID: PMC6028776 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2018.02.025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2017] [Revised: 02/07/2018] [Accepted: 02/20/2018] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Nucleosome-depleted regions around which nucleosomes order following the "statistical" positioning scenario were recently shown to be encoded in the DNA sequence in human. This intrinsic nucleosomal ordering strongly correlates with oscillations in the local GC content as well as with the interspecies and intraspecies mutation profiles, revealing the existence of both positive and negative selection. In this letter, we show that these predicted nucleosome inhibitory energy barriers (NIEBs) with compacted neighboring nucleosomes are indeed ubiquitous to all vertebrates tested. These 1 kb-sized chromatin patterns are widely distributed along vertebrate chromosomes, overall covering more than a third of the genome. We have previously observed in human deviations from neutral evolution at these genome-wide distributed regions, which we interpreted as a possible indication of the selection of an open, accessible, and dynamic nucleosomal array to constitutively facilitate the epigenetic regulation of nuclear functions in a cell-type-specific manner. As a first, very appealing observation supporting this hypothesis, we report evidence of a strong association between NIEB borders and the poly(A) tails of Alu sequences in human. These results suggest that NIEBs provide adequate chromatin patterns favorable to the integration of Alu retrotransposons and, more generally to various transposable elements in the genomes of primates and other vertebrates.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Frédéric G Brunet
- Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon, Univ Lyon, CNRS UMR 5242, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Univ Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France
| | - Benjamin Audit
- Univ Lyon, ENS de Lyon, Univ Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS Laboratoire de Physique, Lyon, France
| | - Guénola Drillon
- Univ Lyon, ENS de Lyon, Univ Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS Laboratoire de Physique, Lyon, France
| | - Françoise Argoul
- Univ Lyon, ENS de Lyon, Univ Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS Laboratoire de Physique, Lyon, France; LOMA, Université de Bordeaux, CNRS UMR 5798, Talence, France
| | - Jean-Nicolas Volff
- Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon, Univ Lyon, CNRS UMR 5242, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Univ Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France
| | - Alain Arneodo
- Univ Lyon, ENS de Lyon, Univ Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS Laboratoire de Physique, Lyon, France; LOMA, Université de Bordeaux, CNRS UMR 5798, Talence, France.
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Zinchenko A, Berezhnoy NV, Chen Q, Nordenskiöld L. Compaction of Single-Molecule Megabase-Long Chromatin under the Influence of Macromolecular Crowding. Biophys J 2018; 114:2326-2335. [PMID: 29729833 PMCID: PMC6129467 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2018.04.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2017] [Revised: 02/05/2018] [Accepted: 04/02/2018] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The megabase-sized length of chromatin is highly relevant to the state of chromatin in vivo, where it is subject to a highly crowded environment and is organized in topologically associating domains of similar dimension. We developed an in vitro experimental chromatin model system reconstituted from T4 DNA (approximately 166 kbp) and histone octamers and studied the monomolecular compaction of this megabase-sized chromatin fiber under the influence of macromolecular crowding. We used single-molecule fluorescence microscopy and observed compaction in aqueous solutions containing poly(ethylene glycol) in the presence of monovalent (Na+ and K+) and divalent (Mg2+) cations. Both DNA and chromatin demonstrated compaction under comparable conditions in the presence of poly(ethylene glycol) and Na+ or Mg2+ salt. However, the mechanism of the compaction changed from a first-order phase transition for DNA to a continuous folding for megabase-sized chromatin fibers. A more efficient and pronounced chromatin compaction was observed in the presence of Na+ compared to K+. A flow-stretching technique to unfold DNA and chromatin coils was used to gain further insight into the morphology of partially folded chromatin fibers. The results revealed a distribution of partially folded chromatin fibers. This variability is likely the result of the heterogeneous distribution of nucleosomes on the DNA chain. The packaging of DNA in the form of chromatin in the crowded nuclear environment appears essential to ensure gradual conformational changes of DNA.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Anatoly Zinchenko
- Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Japan; School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.
| | - Nikolay V Berezhnoy
- School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Qinming Chen
- School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Lars Nordenskiöld
- School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Entropic effect of macromolecular crowding enhances binding between nucleosome clutches in heterochromatin, but not in euchromatin. Sci Rep 2018; 8:5469. [PMID: 29615710 PMCID: PMC5882907 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-23753-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2017] [Accepted: 03/16/2018] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Sharp increase in macromolecular crowding induces abnormal chromatin compaction in the cell nucleus, suggesting its non-negligible impact on chromatin structure and function. However, the details of the crowding-induced chromatin compaction remain poorly understood. In this work, we present a computer simulation study on the entropic effect of macromolecular crowding on the interaction between chromatin structural units called nucleosome clutches. Nucleosome clutches were modeled by a chain of nucleosomes collapsed by harmonic restraints implicitly mimicking the nucleosome association mediated by histone tails and linker histones. The nucleosome density of the clutches was set close to either that of high-density heterochromatin or that of low-density euchromatin. The effective interactions between these nucleosome clutches were calculated in various crowding conditions, and it was found that the increase in the degree of macromolecular crowding induced attractive interaction between two clutches with high nucleosome density. Interestingly, the increased degree of macromolecular crowding did not induce any attraction between two clutches with low nucleosome density. Our results suggest that the entropic effect of macromolecular crowding can enhance binding between nucleosome clutches in heterochromatin, but not in euchromatin, as a result of the difference in nucleosome packing degrees.
Collapse
|
7
|
Zhang L, Xie WJ, Liu S, Meng L, Gu C, Gao YQ. DNA Methylation Landscape Reflects the Spatial Organization of Chromatin in Different Cells. Biophys J 2017; 113:1395-1404. [PMID: 28978434 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2017.08.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2017] [Revised: 08/10/2017] [Accepted: 08/11/2017] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The relationship between DNA methylation and chromatin structure is still largely unknown. By analyzing a large set of published sequencing data, we observed a long-range power law correlation of DNA methylation with cell class-specific scaling exponents in the range of tens of kilobases. We showed that such cell class-specific scaling exponents are caused by different patchiness of DNA methylation in different cells. By modeling the chromatin structure using high-resolution chromosome conformation capture data and mapping the methylation level onto the modeled structure, we demonstrated that the patchiness of DNA methylation is related to chromatin structure. The scaling exponents of the power law correlation are thus a display of the spatial organization of chromatin. Besides the long-range correlation, we also showed that the local correlation of DNA methylation is associated with nucleosome positioning. The local correlation of partially methylated domains is different from that of nonpartially methylated domains, suggesting that their chromatin structures differ at the scale of several hundred base pairs (covering a few nucleosomes). Our study provides a novel, to our knowledge, view of the spatial organization of chromatin structure from a perspective of DNA methylation, in which both long-range and local correlations of DNA methylation along the genome reflect the spatial organization of chromatin.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ling Zhang
- Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China; Biodynamic Optical Imaging Center (BIOPIC), School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Wen Jun Xie
- Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Sirui Liu
- Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Luming Meng
- Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Chan Gu
- Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China; Biodynamic Optical Imaging Center (BIOPIC), School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Yi Qin Gao
- Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China; Biodynamic Optical Imaging Center (BIOPIC), School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Joo H, Kim JS. Confinement-driven organization of a histone-complexed DNA molecule in a dense array of nanoposts. NANOSCALE 2017; 9:6391-6398. [PMID: 28453018 DOI: 10.1039/c7nr00859g] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
The first step in the controlled storage of lengthy DNA molecules is to keep DNA molecules separated while integrated in micrometer-sized space. Herein, we present hybrid Monte Carlo simulations of a histone-complexed DNA (hcDNA) molecule confined in a dense array of nanoposts. Depending on the nanopost dimension, a single, 8.7 kilobase pair hcDNA molecule was either localized and elongated in a single inter-post space surrounded by four nanoposts or spread over several inter-post spaces through passages between two neighboring nanoposts. The conformational change of a hcDNA molecule is interpreted in terms of competitive effects of confinements in the inter-post and passage spaces. We propose that, by elaborately designing nanopost arrays, the competitive confinement effects can be adjusted such that each hcDNA molecule is localized in a single inter-post space, and thereby multiple hcDNA molecules can be physically separated from each other while stored together in the nanopost array.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Heesun Joo
- Department of Chemistry and Nanoscience, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 03760, Republic of Korea.
| | | |
Collapse
|
9
|
Drillon G, Audit B, Argoul F, Arneodo A. Evidence of selection for an accessible nucleosomal array in human. BMC Genomics 2016; 17:526. [PMID: 27472913 PMCID: PMC4966569 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-016-2880-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2015] [Accepted: 07/04/2016] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Recently, a physical model of nucleosome formation based on sequence-dependent bending properties of the DNA double-helix has been used to reveal some enrichment of nucleosome-inhibiting energy barriers (NIEBs) nearby ubiquitous human "master" replication origins. Here we use this model to predict the existence of about 1.6 millions NIEBs over the 22 human autosomes. RESULTS We show that these high energy barriers of mean size 153 bp correspond to nucleosome-depleted regions (NDRs) in vitro, as expected, but also in vivo. On either side of these NIEBs, we observe, in vivo and in vitro, a similar compacted nucleosome ordering, suggesting an absence of chromatin remodeling. This nucleosomal ordering strongly correlates with oscillations of the GC content as well as with the interspecies and intraspecies mutation profiles along these regions. Comparison of these divergence rates reveals the existence of both positive and negative selections linked to nucleosome positioning around these intrinsic NDRs. Overall, these NIEBs and neighboring nucleosomes cover 37.5 % of the human genome where nucleosome occupancy is stably encoded in the DNA sequence. These 1 kb-sized regions of intrinsic nucleosome positioning are equally found in GC-rich and GC-poor isochores, in early and late replicating regions, in intergenic and genic regions but not at gene promoters. CONCLUSION The source of selection pressure on the NIEBs has yet to be resolved in future work. One possible scenario is that these widely distributed chromatin patterns have been selected in human to impair the condensation of the nucleosomal array into the 30 nm chromatin fiber, so as to facilitate the epigenetic regulation of nuclear functions in a cell-type-specific manner.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Guénola Drillon
- Univ Lyon, Ens de Lyon, Univ Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS, Laboratoire de Physique, Lyon, F-69342 France
| | - Benjamin Audit
- Univ Lyon, Ens de Lyon, Univ Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS, Laboratoire de Physique, Lyon, F-69342 France
| | - Françoise Argoul
- Univ Lyon, Ens de Lyon, Univ Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS, Laboratoire de Physique, Lyon, F-69342 France
- LOMA, Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, UMR 5798, 51 Cours de le Libération, Talence, F-33405 France
| | - Alain Arneodo
- Univ Lyon, Ens de Lyon, Univ Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS, Laboratoire de Physique, Lyon, F-69342 France
- LOMA, Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, UMR 5798, 51 Cours de le Libération, Talence, F-33405 France
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Liquid-like behavior of chromatin. Curr Opin Genet Dev 2016; 37:36-45. [DOI: 10.1016/j.gde.2015.11.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 106] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2015] [Revised: 11/23/2015] [Accepted: 11/25/2015] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
|
11
|
Drillon G, Audit B, Argoul F, Arneodo A. Ubiquitous human 'master' origins of replication are encoded in the DNA sequence via a local enrichment in nucleosome excluding energy barriers. JOURNAL OF PHYSICS. CONDENSED MATTER : AN INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS JOURNAL 2015; 27:064102. [PMID: 25563930 DOI: 10.1088/0953-8984/27/6/064102] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
As the elementary building block of eukaryotic chromatin, the nucleosome is at the heart of the compromise between the necessity of compacting DNA in the cell nucleus and the required accessibility to regulatory proteins. The recent availability of genome-wide experimental maps of nucleosome positions for many different organisms and cell types has provided an unprecedented opportunity to elucidate to what extent the DNA sequence conditions the primary structure of chromatin and in turn participates in the chromatin-mediated regulation of nuclear functions, such as gene expression and DNA replication. In this study, we use in vivo and in vitro genome-wide nucleosome occupancy data together with the set of nucleosome-free regions (NFRs) predicted by a physical model of nucleosome formation based on sequence-dependent bending properties of the DNA double-helix, to investigate the role of intrinsic nucleosome occupancy in the regulation of the replication spatio-temporal programme in human. We focus our analysis on the so-called replication U/N-domains that were shown to cover about half of the human genome in the germline (skew-N domains) as well as in embryonic stem cells, somatic and HeLa cells (mean replication timing U-domains). The 'master' origins of replication (MaOris) that border these megabase-sized U/N-domains were found to be specified by a few hundred kb wide regions that are hyper-sensitive to DNase I cleavage, hypomethylated, and enriched in epigenetic marks involved in transcription regulation, the hallmarks of localized open chromatin structures. Here we show that replication U/N-domain borders that are conserved in all considered cell lines have an environment highly enriched in nucleosome-excluding-energy barriers, suggesting that these ubiquitous MaOris have been selected during evolution. In contrast, MaOris that are cell-type-specific are mainly regulated epigenetically and are no longer favoured by a local abundance of intrinsic NFRs encoded in the DNA sequence. At the smaller few hundred bp scale of gene promoters, CpG-rich promoters of housekeeping genes found nearby ubiquitous MaOris as well as CpG-poor promoters of tissue-specific genes found nearby cell-type-specific MaOris, both correspond to in vivo NFRs that are not coded as nucleosome-excluding-energy barriers. Whereas the former promoters are likely to correspond to high occupancy transcription factor binding regions, the latter are an illustration that gene regulation in human is typically cell-type-specific.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Guénola Drillon
- Université de Lyon, F-69000 Lyon, France. Laboratoire de Physique, CNRS UMR 5672, École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, F-69007 Lyon, France
| | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
12
|
Howell SC, Andresen K, Jimenez-Useche I, Yuan C, Qiu X. Elucidating internucleosome interactions and the roles of histone tails. Biophys J 2014; 105:194-9. [PMID: 23823239 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2013.05.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2012] [Revised: 04/19/2013] [Accepted: 05/06/2013] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
The nucleosome is the first level of genome organization and regulation in eukaryotes where negatively charged DNA is wrapped around largely positively charged histone proteins. Interaction between nucleosomes is dominated by electrostatics at long range and guided by specific contacts at short range, particularly involving their flexible histone tails. We have thus quantified how internucleosome interactions are modulated by salts (KCl, MgCl2) and histone tail deletions (H3, H4 N-terminal), using small-angle x-ray scattering and theoretical modeling. We found that measured effective charges at low salts are ∼1/5th of the theoretically predicted renormalized charges and that H4 tail deletion suppresses the attraction at high salts to a larger extent than H3 tail deletion.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Steven C Howell
- Department of Physics, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
| | | | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
13
|
Jerabek H, Heermann DW. How chromatin looping and nuclear envelope attachment affect genome organization in eukaryotic cell nuclei. INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF CELL AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 2014; 307:351-81. [PMID: 24380599 DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-12-800046-5.00010-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/02/2022]
Abstract
To understand how interphase chromatin is organized in eukaryotic cell nuclei, it is essential to understand what kind of interactions influence the nuclear architecture and to what extent. Using a mesoscale model that incorporates chromatin-chromatin interactions as well as binding of chromatin to the nuclear envelope, we can show that chromatin loops and envelope bonds are major players in genome organization because they largely affect the entropy of the chromatin fibres. The model allows us to consistently reproduce multiple characteristic chromatin parameters in agreement with experimental data. We focus on the question of how an inversion of the nuclear architecture, in the course of which the highly active euchromatin changes its preferential position from the nuclear center to the periphery, can be achieved. We find that the transition between the common and inverted organization is driven by the strength of the envelope interaction and the nuclear chromatin density.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Hansjoerg Jerabek
- Institute for Theoretical Physics, Heidelberg, Germany; Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Dieter W Heermann
- Institute for Theoretical Physics, Heidelberg, Germany; Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR), Heidelberg, Germany; The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine, USA; Shanghai Center for Bioinformation Technology (SCBIT), Shanghai, PR China.
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Hübner MR, Eckersley-Maslin MA, Spector DL. Chromatin organization and transcriptional regulation. Curr Opin Genet Dev 2012; 23:89-95. [PMID: 23270812 DOI: 10.1016/j.gde.2012.11.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 128] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2012] [Accepted: 11/08/2012] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Cell type specific transcriptional regulation must be adhered to in order to maintain cell identity throughout the lifetime of an organism, yet it must be flexible enough to allow for responses to endogenous and exogenous stimuli. This regulation is mediated not only by molecular factors (e.g. cell type specific transcription factors, histone and DNA modifications), but also on the level of chromatin and genome organization. In this review we focus on recent findings that have contributed to our understanding of higher order chromatin structure and genome organization within the nucleus. We highlight new findings on the dynamic positioning of genes relative to each other, as well as to their chromosome territory and the nuclear lamina, and how the position of genes correlates with their transcriptional activity.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Michael R Hübner
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, One Bungtown Road, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, United States
| | | | | |
Collapse
|
15
|
Mitotic chromosome structure. Exp Cell Res 2012; 318:1381-5. [DOI: 10.1016/j.yexcr.2012.03.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2012] [Revised: 03/19/2012] [Accepted: 03/24/2012] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
|
16
|
Nishino Y, Eltsov M, Joti Y, Ito K, Takata H, Takahashi Y, Hihara S, Frangakis AS, Imamoto N, Ishikawa T, Maeshima K. Human mitotic chromosomes consist predominantly of irregularly folded nucleosome fibres without a 30-nm chromatin structure. EMBO J 2012; 31:1644-53. [PMID: 22343941 DOI: 10.1038/emboj.2012.35] [Citation(s) in RCA: 219] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2011] [Accepted: 01/26/2012] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
How a long strand of genomic DNA is compacted into a mitotic chromosome remains one of the basic questions in biology. The nucleosome fibre, in which DNA is wrapped around core histones, has long been assumed to be folded into a 30-nm chromatin fibre and further hierarchical regular structures to form mitotic chromosomes, although the actual existence of these regular structures is controversial. Here, we show that human mitotic HeLa chromosomes are mainly composed of irregularly folded nucleosome fibres rather than 30-nm chromatin fibres. Our comprehensive and quantitative study using cryo-electron microscopy and synchrotron X-ray scattering resolved the long-standing contradictions regarding the existence of 30-nm chromatin structures and detected no regular structure >11 nm. Our finding suggests that the mitotic chromosome consists of irregularly arranged nucleosome fibres, with a fractal nature, which permits a more dynamic and flexible genome organization than would be allowed by static regular structures.
Collapse
|
17
|
Boroudjerdi H, Naji A, Netz RR. Salt-modulated structure of polyelectrolyte-macroion complex fibers. THE EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL. E, SOFT MATTER 2011; 34:72. [PMID: 21792745 DOI: 10.1140/epje/i2011-11072-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2011] [Accepted: 06/21/2011] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
The structure and stability of strongly charged complex fibers, formed by complexation of a single long semi-flexible polyelectrolyte chain and many oppositely charged spherical macroions, are investigated numerically at the ground-state level using a chain-sphere cell model. The model takes into account chain elasticity as well as electrostatic interactions between charged spheres and chain segments. Using a numerical optimization method based on a periodically repeated unit cell, we obtain fiber configurations that minimize the total energy. The optimal fiber configurations exhibit a variety of helical structures for the arrangement of macroions including zig-zag, solenoidal and beads-on-a-string patterns. These structures result from the competition between attraction between spheres and the polyelectrolyte chain (which favors chain wrapping around the spheres), chain bending rigidity and electrostatic repulsion between chain segments (which favor unwrapping of the chain), and the interactions between neighboring sphere-chain complexes which can be attractive or repulsive depending on the system parameters such as salt concentration, macroion charge and chain length per macroion (linker size). At about physiological salt concentration, dense zig-zag patterns are found to be energetically most stable when parameters appropriate for the DNA-histone system in the chromatin fiber are adopted. In fact, the predicted fiber diameter in this regime is found to be around 30 nanometers, which roughly agrees with the thickness observed in in vitro experiments on chromatin. We also find a macroion (histone) density of 5-6 per 11nm which agrees with results from the zig-zag or cross-linker models of chromatin. Since our study deals primarily with a generic chain-sphere model, these findings suggest that structures similar to those found for chromatin should also be observable for polyelectrolyte-macroion complexes formed in solutions of DNA and synthetic nano-colloids of opposite charge. In the ensemble where the mean linear density of spheres on the chain is fixed, the present model predicts a phase separation at intermediate salt concentrations into a densely packed complex phase and a dilute phase.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Hoda Boroudjerdi
- Department of Physics, Technical University of Munich, 85748 Garching, Germany
| | | | | |
Collapse
|
18
|
Physical nuclear organization: loops and entropy. Curr Opin Cell Biol 2011; 23:332-7. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ceb.2011.03.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2011] [Revised: 03/14/2011] [Accepted: 03/14/2011] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
|
19
|
Iyer BV, Kenward M, Arya G. Hierarchies in eukaryotic genome organization: Insights from polymer theory and simulations. BMC BIOPHYSICS 2011; 4:8. [PMID: 21595865 PMCID: PMC3102647 DOI: 10.1186/2046-1682-4-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2011] [Accepted: 04/15/2011] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Eukaryotic genomes possess an elaborate and dynamic higher-order structure within the limiting confines of the cell nucleus. Knowledge of the physical principles and the molecular machinery that govern the 3D organization of this structure and its regulation are key to understanding the relationship between genome structure and function. Elegant microscopy and chromosome conformation capture techniques supported by analysis based on polymer models are important steps in this direction. Here, we review results from these efforts and provide some additional insights that elucidate the relationship between structure and function at different hierarchical levels of genome organization.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Balaji Vs Iyer
- Department of NanoEngineering, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0448, USA.
| | | | | |
Collapse
|
20
|
Bohn M, Heermann DW. Repulsive forces between looping chromosomes induce entropy-driven segregation. PLoS One 2011; 6:e14428. [PMID: 21245914 PMCID: PMC3014947 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0014428] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2010] [Accepted: 11/16/2010] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
One striking feature of chromatin organization is that chromosomes are compartmentalized into distinct territories during interphase, the degree of intermingling being much smaller than expected for linear chains. A growing body of evidence indicates that the formation of loops plays a dominant role in transcriptional regulation as well as the entropic organization of interphase chromosomes. Using a recently proposed model, we quantitatively determine the entropic forces between chromosomes. This Dynamic Loop Model assumes that loops form solely on the basis of diffusional motion without invoking other long-range interactions. We find that introducing loops into the structure of chromatin results in a multi-fold higher repulsion between chromosomes compared to linear chains. Strong effects are observed for the tendency of a non-random alignment; the overlap volume between chromosomes decays fast with increasing loop number. Our results suggest that the formation of chromatin loops imposes both compartmentalization as well as order on the system without requiring additional energy-consuming processes.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Manfred Bohn
- Institute for Theoretical Physics, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany.
| | | |
Collapse
|
21
|
Cherstvy AG. Electrostatic interactions in biological DNA-related systems. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2011; 13:9942-68. [DOI: 10.1039/c0cp02796k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 120] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
|
22
|
Diesinger PM, Kunkel S, Langowski J, Heermann DW. Histone depletion facilitates chromatin loops on the kilobasepair scale. Biophys J 2010; 99:2995-3001. [PMID: 21044597 PMCID: PMC2965941 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2010.08.039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2010] [Revised: 08/03/2010] [Accepted: 08/05/2010] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The packing of eukaryotic DNA in the nucleus is decisive for its function; for instance, contact between remote genome sites constitutes a basic feature of gene regulation. Interactions among regulatory proteins, DNA binding, and transcription activation are facilitated by looping of the intervening chromatin. Such long-range interactions depend on the bending flexibility of chromatin, i.e., the ring-closure probability is a directly measurable indicator of polymer flexibility. The applicability of a wormlike chain model to naked DNA has been widely accepted. However, whether this model also suffices to describe the flexibility of eukaryotic interphase chromatin is still a matter of discussion. Here we compare both 5C data from a gene desert and data from fluorescence in situ hybridization with the results of a Monte Carlo simulation of chromatin fibers with and without histone depletion. We then estimate the ring-closure probabilities of simulated fibers with estimates from analytical calculations and show that the wormlike chain model grossly underestimates chromatin flexibility for sharp bends. Most importantly, we find that only fibers with random depletion of linker histones or nucleosomes can explain the probability of random chromatin contacts on small length scales that play an important role in gene regulation. It is possible that missing linker histones and nucleosomes are not just simple, unavoidable, randomly occurring defects, but instead play a regulatory role in gene expression.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Philipp M Diesinger
- Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
| | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
23
|
Diffusion-driven looping provides a consistent framework for chromatin organization. PLoS One 2010; 5:e12218. [PMID: 20811620 PMCID: PMC2928267 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0012218] [Citation(s) in RCA: 120] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2010] [Accepted: 07/02/2010] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Chromatin folding inside the interphase nucleus of eukaryotic cells is done on multiple scales of length and time. Despite recent progress in understanding the folding motifs of chromatin, the higher-order structure still remains elusive. Various experimental studies reveal a tight connection between genome folding and function. Chromosomes fold into a confined subspace of the nucleus and form distinct territories. Chromatin looping seems to play a dominant role both in transcriptional regulation as well as in chromatin organization and has been assumed to be mediated by long-range interactions in many polymer models. However, it remains a crucial question which mechanisms are necessary to make two chromatin regions become co-located, i.e. have them in spatial proximity. We demonstrate that the formation of loops can be accomplished solely on the basis of diffusional motion. The probabilistic nature of temporary contacts mimics the effects of proteins, e.g. transcription factors, in the solvent. We establish testable quantitative predictions by deriving scale-independent measures for comparison to experimental data. In this Dynamic Loop (DL) model, the co-localization probability of distant elements is strongly increased compared to linear non-looping chains. The model correctly describes folding into a confined space as well as the experimentally observed cell-to-cell variation. Most importantly, at biological densities, model chromosomes occupy distinct territories showing less inter-chromosomal contacts than linear chains. Thus, dynamic diffusion-based looping, i.e. gene co-localization, provides a consistent framework for chromatin organization in eukaryotic interphase nuclei.
Collapse
|
24
|
Condensed DNA: condensing the concepts. PROGRESS IN BIOPHYSICS AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 2010; 105:208-22. [PMID: 20638406 DOI: 10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2010.07.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 184] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2010] [Accepted: 07/11/2010] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
DNA is stored in vivo in a highly compact, so-called condensed phase, where gene regulatory processes are governed by the intricate interplay between different states of DNA compaction. These systems often have surprising properties, which one would not predict from classical concepts of dilute solutions. The mechanistic details of DNA packing are essential for its functioning, as revealed by the recent developments coming from biochemistry, electrostatics, statistical mechanics, and molecular and cell biology. Different aspects of condensed DNA behavior are linked to each other, but the links are often hidden in the bulk of experimental and theoretical details. Here we try to condense some of these concepts and provide interconnections between the different fields. After a brief description of main experimental features of DNA condensation inside viruses, bacteria, eukaryotes and the test tube, main theoretical approaches for the description of these systems are presented. We end up with an extended discussion of the role of DNA condensation in the context of gene regulation and mention potential applications of DNA condensation in gene therapy and biotechnology.
Collapse
|
25
|
Diesinger PM, Heermann DW. Monte Carlo Simulations indicate that Chromati: Nanostructure is accessible by Light Microscopy. PMC BIOPHYSICS 2010; 3:11. [PMID: 20537131 PMCID: PMC2911407 DOI: 10.1186/1757-5036-3-11] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2009] [Accepted: 06/10/2010] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
A long controversy exists about the structure of chromatin. Theoretically, this structure could be resolved by scattering experiments if one determines the scattering function - or equivalently the pair distribution function - of the nucleosomes. Unfortunately, scattering experiments with live cells are very difficult and limited to only a couple of nucleosomes.Nevertheless, new techniques like the high-resolution light microscopy supply a new approach to this problem. In this work we determine the radial pair distribution function of chromatin described by our E2A model and find that the dominant peaks which characterize the chromatin structure are very robust in several ways: They can still be identified in the case of chromatin fibers with reasonable linker histone and nucleosome defect rates as well as in the 2D case after a projection like in most high-res light microscopy experiments. This might initiate new experimental approaches like optical microscopy to finally determine the nanostructure of chromatin.Furthermore, we examine the statistics of random chromatin collisions and compare it with 5C data of a gene desert. We find that only chromatin fibers with histone depletion show a significant amount of contacts on the kbp-scale which play a important role in gene regulation. Therefore, linker histone and nucleosome depletion might not only be chromatin defects but even be necessary to facilitate transcription.PACS codes: 82.35.Pq, 87.16.A-, 87.16.af.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Philipp M Diesinger
- Institut für Theoretische Physik Universität Heidelberg Philosophenweg 19 D-69120 Heidelberg Germany
- Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Wissenschaftliches Rechnen der Universität Heidelberg Germany
| | - Dieter W Heermann
- Institut für Theoretische Physik Universität Heidelberg Philosophenweg 19 D-69120 Heidelberg Germany
- Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Wissenschaftliches Rechnen der Universität Heidelberg Germany
| |
Collapse
|