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Increasing the rate of chromatin remodeling and gene activation-a novel role for the histone acetyltransferase Gcn5
Histone acetyltransferases (HATs) such as Gcn5 play a role in transcriptional activation. However, the majority of constitutive genes show no requirement for GCN5 , and even regulated genes, such as the yeast PHO5 gene, do not seem to be affected significantly by its absence under normal activation...
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Published in: | The EMBO journal 2001-09, Vol.20 (17), p.4944-4951 |
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Main Authors: | , , , , |
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Citations: | Items that cite this one |
Online Access: | Get full text |
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Summary: | Histone acetyltransferases (HATs) such as Gcn5 play a role in transcriptional activation. However, the majority of constitutive genes show no requirement for
GCN5
, and even regulated genes, such as the yeast
PHO5
gene, do not seem to be affected significantly by its absence under normal activation conditions. Here we show that even though the steady‐state level of activated
PHO5
transcription is not affected by deletion of
GCN5
, the rate of activation following phosphate starvation is significantly decreased. This delay in transcriptional activation is specifically due to slow chromatin remodeling of the
PHO5
promoter, whereas the transmission of the phosphate starvation signal to the
PHO5
promoter progresses at a normal rate. Chromatin remodeling is equally delayed in a galactose‐inducible
PHO5
promoter variant in which the Pho4 binding sites have been replaced by Gal4 binding sites. By contrast, activation of the
GAL1
gene by galactose addition occurs with normal kinetics. Lack of the histone H4 N‐termini leads to a similar delay in activation of the
PHO5
promoter. These results indicate that one important contribution of HATs is to increase the rate of gene induction by accelerating chromatin remodeling, rather than to affect the final steady‐state expression levels. |
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ISSN: | 0261-4189 1460-2075 1460-2075 |
DOI: | 10.1093/emboj/20.17.4944 |