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Distinct activities of CHD1 and ACF in ATP-dependent chromatin assembly

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology volume 12, pages 160–166 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

CHD1 is a chromodomain-containing protein in the SNF2-like family of ATPases. Here we show that CHD1 exists predominantly as a monomer and functions as an ATP-utilizing chromatin assembly factor. This reaction involves purified CHD1, NAP1 chaperone, core histones and relaxed DNA. CHD1 catalyzes the ATP-dependent transfer of histones from the NAP1 chaperone to the DNA by a processive mechanism that yields regularly spaced nucleosomes. The comparative analysis of CHD1 and ACF revealed that CHD1 assembles chromatin with a shorter nucleosome repeat length than ACF. In addition, ACF, but not CHD1, can assemble chromatin containing histone H1, which is involved in the formation of higher-order chromatin structure and transcriptional repression. These results suggest a role for CHD1 in the assembly of active chromatin and a function of ACF in the assembly of repressive chromatin.

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Figure 1: Drosophila melanogaster CHD1 protein seems to exist predominantly as a monomer.
Figure 2: CHD1 catalyzes the ATP-dependent formation of periodic nucleosome arrays.
Figure 3: Two models for the ATP-dependent formation of periodic nucleosome arrays.
Figure 4: CHD1 and ACF catalyze the periodic spacing of randomly deposited nucleosomes as well as the ATP-dependent transfer of histones from a chaperone protein to DNA.
Figure 5: CHD1 catalyzes the assembly of chromatin by a processive mechanism.
Figure 6: CHD1 and ACF mediate the assembly of chromatin with different nucleosome repeat lengths.
Figure 7: ACF, but not CHD1, can catalyze the assembly of histone H1–containing chromatin.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. Perry, D. Fyodorov, T. Yusufzai, T. Juven-Gershon, J.-Y. Hsu, B. Rattner, T. Boulay and B. Santoso for critical reading of the manuscript. We are grateful to R. Perry and D. Stokes for generously providing antibodies and cDNAs for D. melanogaster CHD1. We are also grateful to K. Robinson for helpful discussions on S. cerevisiae CHD1 as well as to R. Dutnall for the gift of the dNAP1 expression plasmid. A.L. is the recipient of a fellowship from the Austrian Programme for Advanced Research and Technology (APART) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. This work was supported by grants from the US National Institutes of Health (GM58272) and the VolkswagenStiftung (I/77 995) to J.T.K.

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  1. Alexandra Lusser

    Present address: Department of Molecular Biology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Peter Mayr Strasse 4b/III, A-6020, Innsbruck, Austria

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  1. Section of Molecular Biology, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, 92093-0347, California, USA

    Alexandra Lusser, Debra L Urwin & James T Kadonaga

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Lusser, A., Urwin, D. & Kadonaga, J. Distinct activities of CHD1 and ACF in ATP-dependent chromatin assembly. Nat Struct Mol Biol 12, 160–166 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb884

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