SummaryThe mechanisms ensuring specific incorporation of CENP-A at centromeres are poorly understood. Mis16 and Mis18 are required for CENP-A localization at centromeres and form a complex that is conserved from fission yeast to human. Fission yeast sim1 mutants that alleviate kinetochore domain silencing are defective in Scm3Sp, the ortholog of budding yeast Scm3Sc. Scm3Sp depends on Mis16/18 for its centromere localization and like them is recruited to centromeres in late anaphase. Importantly, Scm3Sp coaffinity purifies with CENP-ACnp1 and associates with CENP-ACnp1 in vitro, yet localizes independently of intact CENP-ACnp1 chromatin and is differentially released from chromatin. While Scm3Sc has been proposed to form a unique hexameric nucleosome with CENP-ACse4 and histone H4 at budding yeast point centromeres, we favor a model in which Scm3Sp acts as a CENP-ACnp1 receptor/assembly factor, cooperating with Mis16 and Mis18 to receive CENP-ACnp1 from the Sim3 escort and mediate assembly of CENP-ACnp1 into subkinetochore chromatin.

Posttranslational histone modifications are believed to allow the epigenetic transmission of distinct chromatin states, independently of associated DNA sequences. Histone H3 lysine 9 (H3K9) methylation is essential for heterochromatin formation; however, a demonstration of its epigenetic heritability is lacking. Fission yeast has a single H3K9 methyltransferase, Clr4, that directs all H3K9 methylation and heterochromatin. Using releasable tethered Clr4 reveals that an active process rapidly erases H3K9 methylation from tethering sites in wild-type cells. However, inactivation of the putative histone demethylase Epe1 allows H3K9 methylation and silent chromatin maintenance at the tethering site through many mitotic divisions, and transgenerationally through meiosis, after release of tethered Clr4. Thus, H3K9 methylation is a heritable epigenetic mark whose transmission is usually countered by its active removal, which prevents the unauthorized inheritance of heterochromatin.

SummaryIn fission yeast, RNAi directs heterochromatin formation at centromeres, telomeres, and the mating type locus. Noncoding RNAs transcribed from repeat elements generate siRNAs that are incorporated into the Argonaute-containing RITS complex and direct it to nascent homologous transcripts. This leads to recruitment of the CLRC complex, including the histone methyltransferase Clr4, promoting H3K9 methylation and heterochromatin formation. A key question is what mediates the recruitment of Clr4/CLRC to transcript-bound RITS. We have identified a LIM domain protein, Stc1, that is required for centromeric heterochromatin integrity. Our analyses show that Stc1 is specifically required to establish H3K9 methylation via RNAi, and interacts both with the RNAi effector Ago1, and with the chromatin-modifying CLRC complex. Moreover, tethering Stc1 to a euchromatic locus is sufficient to induce silencing and heterochromatin formation independently of RNAi. We conclude that Stc1 associates with RITS on centromeric transcripts and recruits CLRC, thereby coupling RNAi to chromatin modification.

Heterochromatin formation at fission yeast centromeres is directed by RNA interference (RNAi). Noncoding transcripts derived from centromeric repeats are processed into small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) that direct the RNA-induced transcriptional silencing (RITS) effector complex to engage centromere transcripts, resulting in recruitment of the histone H3 lysine 9 methyltransferase Clr4, and hence silencing. We have found that defects in specific splicing factors, but not splicing itself, affect the generation of centromeric siRNAs and consequently centromeric heterochromatin integrity. Moreover, splicing factors physically associate with Cid12, a component of the RNAi machinery, and with centromeric chromatin, consistent with a direct role in RNAi. We propose that spliceosomal complexes provide a platform for siRNA generation and hence facilitate effective centromere repeat silencing.RNA interference (RNAi) and related pathways regulate gene expression at both transcriptional and posttranscriptional levels. In fission yeast (Schizosaccharomyces pombe), RNAi directs the formation of heterochromatin (1, 2). Analogous to metazoan centromeres, fission yeast centromeres comprise a kinetochore domain flanked by outer repeat (otr) sequences that are assembled in heterochromatin. These otr regions are transcribed by RNA polymerase II (Pol II) and give rise to double-stranded RNA that is processed into small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) by Dicer (Dcr1). These siRNAs are loaded into Argonaute (Ago1), a component of the RNA-induced transcriptional silencing (RITS) effector complex (3). siRNAs target RITS to cognate nascent transcripts, resulting in recruitment of further factors including the RDRC complex (comprising Rdp1, Cid12, and Hrr1) (4), and ultimately Clr4, which methylates histone H3 on Lys 9 (H3K9me2). H3K9me2 is bound by the HP1-related protein Swi6, which in turn recruits cohesin, critical for centromere function (5).To further dissect the mechanism of RNAi-directed chromatin modification, we previously performed a screen that identified mutations at 12 loci termed csp (centromere: suppressor of position effect), which at 25°C alleviate silencing of marker genes inserted in the otr of centromere 1 (6). Several of the csp mutants are alleles of known RNAi components (7,8 and sequencing revealed that csp4 and csp5 are alleles of cwf10 and prp39, respectively, both of which encode splicing factors. csp4, now denoted cwf10-1, creates a missense mutation (C323Y) in the guanosine triphosphate-binding domain of Cwf10. Cwf10 is the homolog of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae U5 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein Snu114 (and of human EFTUD2) that is required for U4/U6 small nuclear RNA (snRNA) unwinding (9). csp5, now denoted prp39-1, makes a nonsense mutation in Prp39 (W550stop). S. cerevisiae Prp39 (homologous to human PRPF39) is associated with U1 snRNA and is required for commitment to splicing of pre-mRNA (10). Thus, mutations in two distinct essential splicing factors affect silencing at centromeres.To further invest...

In the central domain of fission yeast centromeres, the kinetochore is assembled on CENP-A(Cnp1) nucleosomes. Normally, small interfering RNAs generated from flanking outer repeat transcripts direct histone H3 lysine 9 methyltransferase Clr4 to homologous loci to form heterochromatin. Outer repeats, RNA interference (RNAi), and centromeric heterochromatin are required to establish CENP-A(Cnp1) chromatin. We demonstrated that tethering Clr4 via DNA-binding sites at euchromatic loci induces heterochromatin assembly, with or without active RNAi. This synthetic heterochromatin completely substitutes for outer repeats on plasmid-based minichromosomes, promoting de novo CENP-A(Cnp1) and kinetochore assembly, to allow their mitotic segregation, even with RNAi inactive. Thus, the role of outer repeats in centromere establishment is simply the provision of RNAi substrates to direct heterochromatin formation; H3K9 methylation-dependent heterochromatin is alone sufficient to form functional centromeres.

The formation of heterochromatin at the centromeres in fission yeast depends on transcription of the outer repeats. These transcripts are processed into siRNAs that target homologous loci for heterochromatin formation. Here, high throughput sequencing of small RNA provides a comprehensive analysis of centromere-derived small RNAs. We found that the centromeric small RNAs are Dcr1 dependent, carry 5 0 -monophosphates and are associated with Ago1. The majority of centromeric small RNAs originate from two remarkably wellconserved sequences that are present in all centromeres. The high degree of similarity suggests that this non-coding sequence in itself may be of importance. Consistent with this, secondary structure-probing experiments indicate that this centromeric RNA is partially double-stranded and is processed by Dicer in vitro. We further demonstrate the existence of small centromeric RNA in rdp1D cells. Our data suggest a pathway for siRNA generation that is distinct from the well-documented model involving RITS/RDRC. We propose that primary transcripts fold into hairpin-like structures that may be processed by Dcr1 into siRNAs, and that these siRNAs may initiate heterochromatin formation independent of RDRC activity.

SummaryHuman kinetochores are transcriptionally active, producing very low levels of transcripts of the underlying alpha-satellite DNA. However, it is not known whether kinetochores can tolerate acetylated chromatin and the levels of transcription that are characteristic of housekeeping genes, or whether kinetochore-associated 'centrochromatin', despite being transcribed at a low level, is essentially a form of repressive chromatin. Here, we have engineered two types of acetylated chromatin within the centromere of a synthetic human artificial chromosome. Tethering a minimal NF-kB p65 activation domain within kinetochore-associated chromatin produced chromatin with high levels of histone H3 acetylated on lysine 9 (H3K9ac) and an ,10-fold elevation in transcript levels, but had no substantial effect on kinetochore assembly or function. By contrast, tethering the herpes virus VP16 activation domain produced similar modifications in the chromatin but resulted in an ,150-fold elevation in transcripts, approaching the level of transcription of an endogenous housekeeping gene. This rapidly inactivated kinetochores, causing a loss of assembled CENP-A and blocking further CENP-A assembly. Our data reveal that functional centromeres in vivo show a remarkable plasticity -kinetochores tolerate profound changes to their chromatin environment, but appear to be critically sensitive to the level of centromeric transcription.

RNA interference (RNAi) is widespread in eukaryotes and regulates gene expression transcriptionally or post-transcriptionally. In fission yeast, RNAi is tightly coupled to template transcription and chromatin modifications that establish heterochromatin in cis. Exogenous double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) triggers seem to induce heterochromatin formation in trans only when certain silencing proteins are overexpressed. Here, we show that green fluorescent protein (GFP) hairpin dsRNA allows production of high levels of Argonaute-associated small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), which can induce heterochromatin formation at a remote locus. This silencing does not require any manipulation apart from hairpin expression. In cells expressing a ura4 þ -GFP fusion gene, production of GFP siRNAs causes the appearance of ura4 siRNAs from the target gene. Production of these secondary siRNAs depends on RNA-dependent RNA polymerase Rdp1 (RDRP Rdp1 ) function and other RNAi pathway components. This demonstrates that transitivity occurs in fission yeast and implies that RDRP Rdp1 can synthesize RNA from targeted RNA templates in vivo, generating siRNAs not homologous to the hairpin.