Summary Changes to the chromatin structure accompany aging, but the molecular mechanisms underlying aging and the accompanying changes to the chromatin are unclear. Here we report a mechanism whereby altering chromatin structure regulates lifespan. We show that normal aging is accompanied by a profound loss of histone proteins from the genome. Indeed, yeast lacking the histone chaperone Asf1 or acetylation of histone H3 on lysine 56 are short lived and this appears to be at least partly due to their having decreased histone levels. Conversely, increasing the histone supply by inactivation of the Hir (histone information regulator) complex or overexpression of histones dramatically extends lifespan, via a pathway that is distinct from previously known pathways of lifespan extension. This study indicates that maintenance of the fundamental chromatin structure is critical for slowing down the aging process and reveals that increasing the histone supply extends lifespan.
The "classical" organic anion secretory pathway of the renal proximal tubule is critical for the renal excretion of the prototypic organic anion, para-aminohippurate, as well as of a large number of commonly prescribed drugs among other significant substrates. Organic anion transporter 1 (OAT1), originally identified as NKT (Lopez-Nieto, C. E., You, G., Bush, K. T., Barros, E. J. G., Beier, D. R., and Nigam, S. K. (1997) J. Biol. Chem. 272, 6471-6478), has physiological properties consistent with a role in this pathway. However, several other transporters (e.g. OAT2, OAT3, and MRP1) have also been proposed as important PAH transporters on the basis of in vitro studies; therefore, the relative contribution of OAT1 has remained unclear. We have now generated a colony of OAT1 knockout mice, permitting elucidation of the role of OAT1 in the context of these other potentially functionally redundant transporters. We find that the knock-out mice manifest a profound loss of organic anion transport (e.g. para-aminohippurate) both ex vivo (in isolated renal slices) as well as in vivo (as indicated by loss of renal secretion). In the case of the organic anion, furosemide, loss of renal secretion in the knock-out results in impaired diuretic responsiveness to this drug. These results indicate a critical role for OAT1 in the functioning of the classical pathway. In addition, we have determined the levels of ϳ60 endogenous organic anions in the plasma and urine of wild-type and knock-out mice. This has led to identification of several compounds with significantly higher plasma concentrations and/or lower urinary concentrations in knock-out mice, suggesting the involvement of OAT1 in their renal secretion. We have also demonstrated in xenopus oocytes that some of these compounds interact with OAT1 in vitro. Thus, these latter compounds might represent physiological substrates of OAT1.
Promoter chromatin disassembly is a widely used mechanism to regulate eukaryotic transcriptional induction. Delaying histone H3/H4 removal from the yeast PHO5 promoter also leads to delayed removal of histones H2A/H2B, suggesting a constant equilibrium of assembly and disassembly of H2A/H2B, whereas H3/H4 disassembly is the highly regulated step. Toward understanding how H3/H4 disassembly is regulated, we observe a drastic increase in the levels of histone H3 acetylated on lysine-56 (K56ac) during promoter chromatin disassembly. Indeed, promoter chromatin disassembly is driven by Rtt109 and Asf1-dependent acetylation of H3 K56. Conversely, promoter chromatin reassembly during transcriptional repression is accompanied by decreased levels of histone H3 acetylated on lysine-56, and a mutation that prevents K56 acetylation increases the rate of transcriptional repression. As such, H3 K56 acetylation drives chromatin toward the disassembled state during transcriptional activation, whereas loss of H3 K56 acetylation drives the chromatin toward the assembled state.Asf1 ͉ K56 acetylation ͉ transcription T he packaging of DNA together with histone proteins into chromatin is essential for regulating all of the activities of the eukaryotic genome, including repair, replication, and gene expression. The chromatin structure dynamically changes to facilitate these processes and regulate access to the DNA sequence. For example, nucleosomes are disassembled from many eukaryotic promoters during transcriptional activation to provide access to the general transcription machinery (1). The histone H3/H4 chaperone known as Asf1 contributes to the disassembly of histones H3/H4 from multiple budding yeast promoters during transcriptional activation (2-4).Histone posttranslational modifications may also play an important role in regulating chromatin disassembly. Many of the best studied sites of histone posttranslational modifications map to the N-terminal tails of the histones that extend out from the globular core of the nucleosome and are unlikely to have a direct influence on the structure of the nucleosome. By contrast, the newly identified acetylation of lysine-56 within the globular core of histone H3 (H3 K56ac) (5, 6) is unique because it is predicted to break a DNA:histone interaction, potentially destabilizing the nucleosome. H3 K56 acetylation occurs predominantly on newly synthesized histones that are assembled into chromatin after DNA replication (6) and are rapidly deacetylated after S phase (7,8). Functionally, K56 acetylation promotes survival after the exposure of cells to genotoxic agents because of its role in stabilizing the replisome (6, 9). The histone acetyltransferase (HAT) responsible for acetylation of K56 on newly synthesized histones is Rtt109 (10-12) and needs either of two histone chaperones, Asf1 or Vps75, for enzymatic activity (13).Given the requirement for the histone chaperone Asf1 for H3 K56 acetylation and its role in chromatin disassembly from promoters during transcriptional activation, we investi...
Routine rewriting of loci associated with human traits and diseases would facilitate their functional analysis. However, existing DNA integration approaches are limited in terms of scalability and portability across genomic loci and cellular contexts. We describe Big-IN, a versatile platform for targeted integration of large DNAs into mammalian cells. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated targeting of a landing pad enables subsequent recombinase-mediated delivery of variant payloads and efficient positive/negative selection for correct clones in mammalian stem cells. We demonstrate integration of constructs up to 143 kb, and an approach for one-step scarless delivery. We developed a staged pipeline combining PCR genotyping and targeted capture sequencing for economical and comprehensive verification of engineered stem cells. Our approach should enable combinatorial interrogation of genomic functional elements and systematic locus-scale analysis of genome function.
Organic anion transporters (OATs, SLC22) interact with a remarkably diverse array of endogenous and exogenous organic anions. However, little is known about the structural features that determine their substrate selectivity. We examined the substrate binding preferences and transport function of olfactory organic anion transporter, Oat6, in comparison with the more broadly expressed transporter, Oat1 (first identified as NKT). In analyzing interactions of both transporters with over 40 structurally diverse organic anions, we find a correlation between organic anion potency (pK i ) and hydrophobicity (logP) suggesting a hydrophobicity-driven association with transporter-binding sites, which appears particularly prominent for Oat6. On the other hand, organic anion binding selectivity between Oat6 and Oat1 is influenced by the anion mass and net charge. Smaller mono-anions manifest greater potency for Oat6 and di-anions for Oat1. Comparative molecular field analysis confirms these mechanistic insights and provides a model for predicting new OAT substrates. By comparative molecular field analysis, both hydrophobic and charged interactions contribute to Oat1 binding, although it is predominantly the former that contributes to Oat6 binding. Together, the data suggest that, although the three-dimensional structures of these two transporters may be very similar, the binding pockets exhibit crucial differences. Furthermore, for six radiolabeled substrates, we assessed transport efficacy (V max ) for Oat6 and Oat1. Binding potency and transport efficacy had little correlation, suggesting that different molecular interactions are involved in substrate binding to the transporter and translocation across the membrane. Substrate specificity for a particular transporter may enable design of drugs for targeting to specific tissues (e.g. olfactory mucosa). We also discuss how these data suggest a possible mechanism for remote sensing between OATs in different tissue compartments (e.g. kidney, olfactory mucosa) via organic anions.
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