GAGA Factor Maintains Nucleosome-Free Regions and Has a Role in RNA Polymerase II Recruitment to Promoters

Fuda, N. J., Guertin, M. J., Sharma, S., Danko, C. G., Martins, A. L., Siepel, A., Lis, J. T. (March 2015) GAGA Factor Maintains Nucleosome-Free Regions and Has a Role in RNA Polymerase II Recruitment to Promoters. Plos Genetics, 11 (3). e1005108. ISSN 1553-7390

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URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25815464
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1005108

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that GAGA Factor (GAF) is enriched on promoters with paused RNA Polymerase II (Pol II), but its genome-wide function and mechanism of action remain largely uncharacterized. We assayed the levels of transcriptionally-engaged polymerase using global run-on sequencing (GRO-seq) in control and GAF-RNAi Drosophila S2 cells and found promoter-proximal polymerase was significantly reduced on a large subset of paused promoters where GAF occupancy was reduced by knock down. These promoters show a dramatic increase in nucleosome occupancy upon GAF depletion. These results, in conjunction with previous studies showing that GAF directly interacts with nucleosome remodelers, strongly support a model where GAF directs nucleosome displacement at the promoter and thereby allows the entry Pol II to the promoter and pause sites. This action of GAF on nucleosomes is at least partially independent of paused Pol II because intergenic GAF binding sites with little or no Pol II also show GAF-dependent nucleosome displacement. In addition, the insulator factor BEAF, the BEAF-interacting protein Chriz, and the transcription factor M1BP are strikingly enriched on those GAF-associated genes where pausing is unaffected by knock down, suggesting insulators or the alternative promoter-associated factor M1BP protect a subset of GAF-bound paused genes from GAF knock-down effects. Thus, GAF binding at promoters can lead to the local displacement of nucleosomes, but this activity can be restricted or compensated for when insulator protein or M1BP complexes also reside at GAF bound promoters.

Item Type: Paper
Subjects: bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing > DNA, RNA structure, function, modification
bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing > protein structure, function, modification > protein types > enzymes > RNA polymerase
bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing > DNA, RNA structure, function, modification > nucleosome
bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing > DNA, RNA structure, function, modification > DNA expression > promoter
CSHL Authors:
Communities: CSHL labs > Siepel lab
CSHL Cancer Center Program > Cancer Genetics
Depositing User: Matt Covey
Date: 27 March 2015
Date Deposited: 20 Apr 2015 19:25
Last Modified: 14 Oct 2015 16:24
PMCID: PMC4376892
Related URLs:
URI: https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/31343

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