Effects of deoxyribonucleases I and II on rat-liver-chromatin transcription in vitro

Separation of transcriptively active and inactive chromatin. Agarose gel chromatography

Sheared chromatin fractionated by currently accepted methods of agarose gel exclusion chromatography, undergoes a limited and non-specific aggregation resulting from the high ionic strength and divalent cation concentration of the column elution buffer. Such aggregation causes the artifactual appearance of radioactively labeled, newly synthesized RNA within the column exclusion volume, erroneously suggesting an enrichment for actively transcribed chromatin. Claims for the efficacy of agarose gel exclusion as a method for separating template-active and -inactive chromatin are based largely on assays for active chromatin which rely on localization of specific molecular complexes of chromatin and nascent RNA. Under the conditions employed, the present studies invalidate this assay and thus cast considerable doubt on the agarose gel exclusion method itself.

Characterization of double-stranded ribonucleic acid sequences present in the initial transcription products of rat liver chromatin

At low ionic strength and with a low exogenous RNA polymerase/DNA ratio, rat liver chromatin directs the synthesis in vitro of RNA sequences rich in double-stranded segments. All the transcripts contain at least one double-stranded sequence. Most of the double-stranded segments are formed by intramolecular base-pairing of inverted complementary sequences separated by a single-stranded loop. They are heterogeneous in size, 35-45% of them being more than 80 nucleotides long. They contain 61-64% G+C, whether synthesized by rat liver RNA polymerase (form B) or Escherichia coli RNA polymerase. The largest double-stranded sequences are found in the largest transcripts, and are the most thermostable. The fidelity of base-matching is better in double-stranded transcripts synthesized on rat liver chromatin by homologous polymerase than in those synthesized on it by a bacterial polymerase, or in those synthesized by either of the two polymerases on pure DNA.

Double-stranded RNA in chromatin transcripts formed by exogenous RNA polymerase

RNA transcribed in vitro at low ionic strength, from either rat liver chromatin or DNA, contains a significant amount of structure resistant to RNase in high salt buffer. This is observed with rat liver (form B polymerase) as well as with Escherichia coli RNA polymerase (RNA nucleotidyltransferase; nucleoside triphosphate: RNA nucleotidyltransferase; EC 2.7.7.6). Treatment with RNases specific for either double-stranded or hybrid RNA indicates that resistance to RNase is due to the presence of double-stranded RNA sequences. Denaturation kinetics in the presence or absence of RNase suggest that these sequences are formed by intramolecular base pairing. Their mean length is about 20 to 30 nucleotides, but 15-20% are more than 100 nucleotides long. They contain 60-65% G-C base pairs. The proportion of double-stranded segments is higher in chromatin transcripts than in DNA-templated RNA, and is higher with homologous RNA polymerase than with the bacterial enzyme. On the other hand, chromatin endogenous RNA polymerase, which is unable to initiate transcription, does not synthesize double-stranded RNA. The problem of the location of these sequences is discussed; preliminary results suggest that the 5' end of the RNA transcripts could be enriched in complementary sequences.

Accessibility of chromatin to DNA polymerase I and location of the F1 histone

The effect of prebound poly-L-lysine upon the template activity of DNA, chromatin and F1 histone-depleted chromatin for E. coli DNA polymerase I has been investigated. Measurements have been made in the absence and presence of 0.1M NaCl. From the results we conclude that only ca 60% of the polylysine-accessible DNA, i.e. 22% of the total DNA of the chromatin, is accessible to the DNA polymerase I and that ca. 30% of the polylysine-accessible DNA, i.e. 11% of the total DNA, is associated with the F1 histone.