Generation of a synthetic GlcNAcylated nucleosome reveals regulation of stability by H2A-Thr101 GlcNAcylation.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 26305776.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms8978 and PMC identifier 4560749.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
O-GlcNAcylation is a newly discovered histone modification implicated in transcriptional regulation, but no structural information on the physical effect of GlcNAcylation on chromatin exists. Here, we generate synthetic, pure GlcNAcylated histones and nucleosomes and reveal that GlcNAcylation can modulate structure through direct destabilization of H2A/H2B dimers in the nucleosome, thus promoting an 'open' chromatin state. The results suggest that a plausible molecular basis for one role of histone O-GlcNAcylation in epigenetic regulation is to lower the barrier for RNA polymerase passage and hence increase transcription.
Medical subject headings
- Acetylglucosamine
- Chromatin
- Gene Expression Regulation
- Histone Code
- Histones
- N-Acetylglucosaminyltransferases
- Nucleosomes