Routes to DNA accessibility: alternative pathways for nucleosome unwinding

A High-throughput Pipeline to Determine DNA and Nucleosome Conformations by AFM Imaging

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a powerful tool to image macromolecular complexes with nanometer resolution and exquisite single-molecule sensitivity. While AFM imaging is well-established to investigate DNA and nucleoprotein complexes, AFM studies are often limited by small datasets and manual image analysis that is slow and prone to user bias. Recently, we have shown that a combination of large scale AFM imaging and automated image analysis of nucleosomes can overcome these previous limitations of AFM nucleoprotein studies. Using our high-throughput imaging and analysis pipeline, we have resolved nucleosome wrapping intermediates with five base pair resolution and revealed how distinct nucleosome variants and environmental conditions affect the unwrapping pathways of nucleosomal DNA. Here, we provide a detailed protocol of our workflow to analyze DNA and nucleosome conformations focusing on practical aspects and experimental parameters. We expect our protocol to drastically enhance AFM analyses of DNA and nucleosomes and to be readily adaptable to a wide variety of other protein and protein-nucleic acid complexes.

The Dynamic Influence of Linker Histone Saturation within the Poly-Nucleosome Array

Linker histones bind to nucleosomes and modify chromatin structure and dynamics as a means of epigenetic regulation. Biophysical studies have shown that chromatin fibers can adopt a plethora of conformations with varying levels of compaction. Linker histone condensation, and its specific binding disposition, has been associated with directly tuning this ensemble of states. However, the atomistic dynamics and quantification of this mechanism remains poorly understood. Here, we present molecular dynamics simulations of octa-nucleosome arrays, based on a cryo-EM structure of the 30-nm chromatin fiber, with and without the globular domains of the H1 linker histone to determine how they influence fiber structures and dynamics. Results show that when bound, linker histones inhibit DNA flexibility and stabilize repeating tetra-nucleosomal units, giving rise to increased chromatin compaction. Furthermore, upon the removal of H1, there is a significant destabilization of this compact structure as the fiber adopts less strained and untwisted states. Interestingly, linker DNA sampling in the octa-nucleosome is exaggerated compared to its mono-nucleosome counterparts, suggesting that chromatin architecture plays a significant role in DNA strain even in the absence of linker histones. Moreover, H1-bound states are shown to have increased stiffness within tetra-nucleosomes, but not between them. This increased stiffness leads to stronger long-range correlations within the fiber, which may result in the propagation of epigenetic signals over longer spatial ranges. These simulations highlight the effects of linker histone binding on the internal dynamics and global structure of poly-nucleosome arrays, while providing physical insight into a mechanism of chromatin compaction.

High precision FRET studies reveal reversible transitions in nucleosomes between microseconds and minutes

Nucleosomes play a dual role in compacting the genome and regulating the access to DNA. To unravel the underlying mechanism, we study fluorescently labeled mononucleosomes by multi-parameter FRET measurements and characterize their structural and dynamic heterogeneity upon NaCl-induced destabilization. Species-selective fluorescence lifetime analysis and dynamic photon distribution analysis reveal intermediates during nucleosome opening and lead to a coherent structural and kinetic model. In dynamic octasomes and hexasomes the interface between the H2A-H2B dimers and the (H3-H4)₂ tetramer opens asymmetrically by an angle of ≈20° on a 50 and 15 µs time scale, respectively. This is followed by a slower stepwise release of the dimers coupled with DNA unwrapping. A mutation (H2A-R81A) at the interface between H2A and H3 facilitates initial opening, confirming the central role of the dimer:tetramer interface for nucleosome stability. Partially opened states such as those described here might serve as convenient nucleation sites for DNA-recognizing proteins.

Structure-Based Derivation of Protein Folding Intermediates and Energies from Optical Tweezers

Optical tweezers (OTs) measure the force-dependent time-resolved extension of a single macromolecule tethered between two trapped beads. From this measurement, it is possible to determine the folding intermediates, energies, and kinetics of the macromolecule. Previous data analysis generally has used the extension as a reaction coordinate to characterize the observed folding transitions. Despite its convenience, the extension poorly describes folding in the absence of force. Here, we chose the contour length of the unfolded polypeptide as a reaction coordinate and modeled the extensions of protein structures along their predicted folding pathways based on high-resolution structures of the proteins in their native states. We included the extension in our model to calculate the total extensions, energies, and transition rates of the proteins as a function of force. We fit these calculations to the corresponding experimental measurements and obtained the best-fit conformations and energies of proteins in different folding states. We applied our method to analyze single-molecule trajectories of two representative protein complexes responsible for membrane fusion, the HIV-1 glycoprotein 41 and the synaptic SNARE proteins, which involved transitions between two and five states, respectively. Nonlinear fitting of the model to the experimental data revealed the structures of folding intermediates and transition states and their associated energies. Our results demonstrate that the contour length is a useful reaction coordinate to characterize protein folding and that intrinsic extensions of protein structures should be taken into account to properly derive the conformations and energies of protein folding intermediates from single-molecule manipulation experiments.

Nucleosome dynamics: Sequence matters

About three quarter of all eukaryotic DNA is wrapped around protein cylinders, forming nucleosomes. Even though the histone proteins that make up the core of nucleosomes are highly conserved in evolution, nucleosomes can be very different from each other due to posttranslational modifications of the histones. Another crucial factor in making nucleosomes unique has so far been underappreciated: the sequence of their DNA. This review provides an overview of the experimental and theoretical progress that increasingly points to the importance of the nucleosomal base pair sequence. Specifically, we discuss the role of the underlying base pair sequence in nucleosome positioning, sliding, breathing, force-induced unwrapping, dissociation and partial assembly and also how the sequence can influence higher-order structures. A new view emerges: the physical properties of nucleosomes, especially their dynamical properties, are determined to a large extent by the mechanical properties of their DNA, which in turn depends on DNA sequence.

Why Do Nucleosomes Unwrap Asymmetrically?

Nucleosomes, DNA spools with a protein core, engage about three-quarters of eukaryotic DNA and play a critical role in chromosomal processes, ranging from gene regulation, recombination, and replication to chromosome condensation. For more than a decade, micromanipulation experiments where nucleosomes are put under tension, as well as the theoretical interpretations of these experiments, have deepened our understanding of the stability and dynamics of nucleosomes. Here we give a theoretical explanation for a surprising new experimental finding: nucleosomes wrapped onto the 601 positioning sequence (the sequence used in most laboratories) respond highly asymmetrically to external forces by always unwrapping from the same end. Using a computational nucleosome model, we show that this asymmetry can be explained by differences in the DNA mechanics of two very short stretches on the wrapped DNA portion. Our finding suggests that the physical properties of nucleosomes, here the response to forces, can be tuned locally by the choice of the underlying base-pair sequence. This leads to a new view of nucleosomes: a physically highly varied set of DNA-protein complexes whose properties can be tuned on evolutionary time scales to their specific function in the genomic context.

Probing the structural dynamics of proteins and nucleic acids with optical tweezers

Conformational changes are an essential feature of most molecular processes in biology. Optical tweezers have emerged as a powerful tool for probing conformational dynamics at the single-molecule level because of their high resolution and sensitivity, opening new windows on phenomena ranging from folding and ligand binding to enzyme function, molecular machines, and protein aggregation. By measuring conformational changes induced in a molecule by forces applied by optical tweezers, new insight has been gained into the relationship between dynamics and function. We discuss recent advances from studies of how structure forms in proteins and RNA, including non-native structures, fluctuations in disordered proteins, and interactions with chaperones assisting native folding. We also review the development of assays probing the dynamics of complex protein-nucleic acid and protein-protein assemblies that reveal the dynamic interactions between biomolecular machines and their substrates.