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A novel mechanism of epigenetic regulation: Nucleosome-space occupancy

Peng Cui, Lingfang Zhang, Qiang Lin, Feng Ding, Chengqi Xin, Xiangdong Fang, Songnian Hu, and Jun Yu

Biochem Biophys Res Commun 391(1):6 (2010) PMID 19948147

Nucleosome positioning around the gene space (or transcriptional unit) plays a crucial role for gene regulation but we do not know if the spatial organization-nucleosome-space occupancy or nucleosome density in a defined sequence unit length-contributes to the regulation complexity of mammalian gene expression. Using our own rmRNA-Seq (ribosomal RNA-minus RNA sequencing) and publically available ChIP-Seq (H3) data from mouse stem cells, we discovered a non-random distribution of nucleosomes along chromosomes, and further genome-wide studies on histone modifications, DNA methylation, transcriptional activity, gene density, and base compositional dynamics, demonstrated that nucleosome-space occupancy of genomic regions-clustered genes and their intergenic spaces-show distinctive features, where a high occupancy coincides with active transcription, intensive histone modifications, poor DNA methylation, and higher GC contents as compared to the nucleosome-poor regions. We therefore proposed that nucleosome-space occupancy as a novel mechanism of epigenetic gene regulation, creating a vital environment for transcriptional activation.

Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2009.11.157
Version: za2963e q8za6 q8zb1 q8zc6 q8zd6 q8ze3 q8zf7 q8zg5

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