Nucleic Acids Research, 1981, Vol. 9, No. 24 6869-6888
© 1981
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY |
Nucleosomes will not form on double-stranded RNA or over poly(dA)-poly(dT) tracts in recombinant DNA
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and the Molecular Biology Institute, University of California Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA
Received September 1, 1981. We have been unable to "force" double-stranded RNA to fold into nucleosome-like structures using several different histone-RNA "reconstitution" procedures. Even if the histones are first stabilized in octameric form by dimethylsuberimidate cross-linking they are still unable to form specific complexes with the RNA. Moreover double-stranded RNA is unable to induce histones to assemble into octamers although we confirm that the non-nucleic acid homopolymer, polyglutamic acid, has this ability. We have also determined, using pyrimidine tract analysis, that nucleosomes will not form over a sufficiently long segment of poly(dA).poly(dT) in a recombinant DNA molecule. Thus nucleosomes cannot fold DNA containing an 80 base pair poly(dA).poly(dT) segment but a 20 base pair segment can be accommodated in nucleo-somes fairly well. Segments of intermediate length can be accommodated but are clearly selected against. Poly(dA).poly(dT) differs only slightly from natural DNA in helix structure. Therefore either this homopolymer resists folding, or nucleosomes are very exacting in the nucleic acid steric parameters they will tolerate. Such constraints may be relevant to nucleosome positioning in chromatin.
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  M. Balasov, R. P. H. Huijbregts, and I. Chesnokov Role of the Orc6 Protein in Origin Recognition Complex-Dependent DNA Binding and Replication in Drosophila melanogaster Mol. Cell. Biol., April 15, 2007; 27(8): 3143 - 3153. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 X. Shi and R. B. Macgregor Jr. Temperature Dependence of the Volumetric Parameters of Drug Binding to Poly[d(A-T)]{middle dot}Poly[d(A-T)] and Poly(dA){middle dot}Poly(dT) Biophys. J., March 1, 2006; 90(5): 1729 - 1738. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
X. Bi, Q. Yu, J. J. Sandmeier, and Y. Zou Formation of Boundaries of Transcriptionally Silent Chromatin by Nucleosome-Excluding Structures Mol. Cell. Biol., March 1, 2004; 24(5): 2118 - 2131. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 C. W. Espelin, K. T. Simons, S. C. Harrison, and P. K. Sorger Binding of the Essential Saccharomyces cerevisiae Kinetochore Protein Ndc10p to CDEII Mol. Biol. Cell, November 1, 2003; 14(11): 4557 - 4568. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 M. Angermayr, U. Oechsner, K. Gregor, G. P. Schroth, and W. Bandlow Transcription initiation in vivo without classical transactivators: DNA kinks flanking the core promoter of the housekeeping yeast adenylate kinase gene, AKY2, position nucleosomes and constitutively activate transcription Nucleic Acids Res., October 1, 2002; 30(19): 4199 - 4207. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
M. P. Martin, V. L. Gerlach, and D. A. Brow A Novel Upstream RNA Polymerase III Promoter Element Becomes Essential When the Chromatin Structure of the Yeast U6 RNA Gene Is Altered Mol. Cell. Biol., October 1, 2001; 21(19): 6429 - 6439. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
B. Suter, G. Schnappauf, and F. Thoma Poly(dA{middle dot}dT) sequences exist as rigid DNA structures in nucleosome-free yeast promoters in vivo Nucleic Acids Res., November 1, 2000; 28(21): 4083 - 4089. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 M. Espinas, E. Jimenez-Garcia, A. Martinez-Balbas, and F. Azorin Formation of Triple-stranded DNA at d(GA·TC)n Sequences Prevents Nucleosome Assembly and Is Hindered by Nucleosomes J. Biol. Chem., December 13, 1996; 271(50): 31807 - 31812. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
E. W. Englander and B. H. Howard A Naturally Occurring T(14)A[IMAGE] Tract Blocks Nucleosome Formation Over the Human Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1)-Alu Element J. Biol. Chem., March 8, 1996; 271(10): 5819 - 5823. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
B. P. Schick, I. Petrushina, K. C. Brodbeck, and P. Castronuevo Promoter Regulatory Elements and DNase I-hypersensitive Sites Involved in Serglycin Proteoglycan Gene Expression in Human Erythroleukemia, CHRF 288-11, and HL-60 Cells J. Biol. Chem., June 29, 2001; 276(27): 24726 - 24735. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|