Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology 2000
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington USA
July 2000

Name: Vignali, Marissa
Mailing Address: HHMI and BMB Dept., Pennsylvania State University, 306 Althouse Lab., University Park, PA 16802, USA
Email Address: mgv1@psu.edu
Phone & FAX numbers: (814) 863-8554 & (814) 863-0099

#029

Distinct patterns of chromatin acetylation by the SAGA and NuA4 HAT complexes upon recruitment to promoters.
Marissa Vignali (1), David Steger (2), Kristen Neely (1), Jerry Workman (1)
(1) HHMI and BMB Dept., Pennsylvania State University, 306 Althouse Lab., University Park, PA 16802, USA; (2) Dept. of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California-San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.

How do the different yeast HAT complexes (ADA, SAGA, NuA3 and NuA4) regulate transcription from specific promoters in the context of cellular chromatin? We have shown that, under competitive in vitro conditions, the activator-mediated targeting of the histone acetyl transferase activity of SAGA and NuA4 to specific chromatin templates is required for their ability to stimulate transcription. Interestingly, 'scanning' ChIP assays reveal a different pattern of acetylation by SAGA and NuA4 upon recruitment: while acetylation by SAGA is highest at nucleosomes flanking the activator binding sites, and thereafter sharply decreases in each direction, NuA4 acetylation is less localized and spreads over a larger chromatin domain. We are currently investigating whether this difference is due to potentially different mechanistic properties of the two HAT complexes, and how it relates to their ability to stimulate transcription from chromatin templates.

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