Sumoylation of the human histone H4 tail inhibits p300-mediated transcription by RNA polymerase II in cellular extracts

eLife

Elizabeth L Tyson¹  Martin Sadilek¹  Calvin Jon A Leonen¹  Patrick MM Shelton¹  Caroline E Weller¹  Champak Chatterjee¹  Arpit Mishra²  R David Hawkins²  Ning Zheng³  Peter L Hsu³  Miho Shimada⁴  Robert G Roeder⁴  Tomoyoshi Nakadai⁵ 

[1]Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, United States

[2]Department of Genome Sciences, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, United States

[3]Department of Pharmacology, University of Washington, Seattle, United States

[4]Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, United States

[5]Laboratory of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Rockefeller University, New York City, United States

[6]Laboratory of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Rockefeller University, New York City, United States

[7]Project for Cancer Epigenomics, Cancer Institute of JFCR, Tokyo, Japan

关键词: chromatin;    histone;    SUMO;    acetylation;    transcription;    sumoylation;    E. coli;    Human;    S. cerevisiae;   

DOI  :  10.7554/eLife.67952

来源: eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd

【 摘 要 】

The post-translational modification of histones by the small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) protein has been associated with gene regulation, centromeric localization, and double-strand break repair in eukaryotes. Although sumoylation of histone H4 was specifically associated with gene repression, this could not be proven due to the challenge of site-specifically sumoylating H4 in cells. Biochemical crosstalk between SUMO and other histone modifications, such as H4 acetylation and H3 methylation, that are associated with active genes also remains unclear. We addressed these challenges in mechanistic studies using an H4 chemically modified at Lys12 by SUMO-3 (H4K12su) and incorporated into mononucleosomes and chromatinized plasmids for functional studies. Mononucleosome-based assays revealed that H4K12su inhibits transcription-activating H4 tail acetylation by the histone acetyltransferase p300, as well as transcription-associated H3K4 methylation by the extended catalytic module of the Set1/COMPASS (complex of proteins associated with Set1) histone methyltransferase complex. Activator- and p300-dependent in vitro transcription assays with chromatinized plasmids revealed that H4K12su inhibits both H4 tail acetylation and RNA polymerase II-mediated transcription. Finally, cell-based assays with a SUMO-H4 fusion that mimics H4 tail sumoylation confirmed the negative crosstalk between histone sumoylation and acetylation/methylation. Thus, our studies establish the key role for histone sumoylation in gene silencing and its negative biochemical crosstalk with active transcription-associated marks in human cells.

【 授权许可】

CC BY