Summary FACT has been proposed to function by displacing an H2A–H2B dimer to form hexasomes. Results described here with yeast FACT (yFACT) suggest instead that nucleosomes are reorganized to a form with the original composition but a looser, more dynamic structure. First, yFACT enhances hydroxyl radical accessibility and endonuclease digestion in vitro at sites throughout the nucleosome, not just in regions contacted by H2A–H2B. Accessibility increases dramatically but the DNA remains partially protected. Second, increased nuclease sensitivity does not require displacement of dimers from the nucleosome. Third, yFACT is required for eviction of nucleosomes from the GAL1-10 promoter and the adjacent ORF in vivo, but most sites do not exhibit the preferential reduction in dimer occupancy expected for hexasome formation. We propose that yFACT promotes a reversible transition between two nucleosomal forms and that this is useful both to overcome the repressive chromatin barrier and to establish and maintain this barrier.

SUMMARY FACT, a heterodimer of Spt16 and Pob3, is an essential histone chaperone. We show that the H2A-H2B binding activity that is central to FACT function resides in short acidic regions near the C-termini of each subunit. Mutations throughout these regions impact binding and cause correlated phenotypes that range from mild to lethal, with the largest individual contributions unexpectedly coming from an aromatic residue and a nearby carboxylate residue within each domain. Spt16 and Pob3 bind overlapping sites on H2A-H2B, and Spt16-Pob3 heterodimers simultaneously bind two H2A-H2B dimers, the same stoichiometry as the components of a nucleosome. An Spt16:H2A-H2B crystal structure explains the biochemical and genetic data, provides a model for Pob3 binding, and implies a mechanism for FACT reorganization that we confirm biochemically. Moreover, unexpected similarity to binding of ANP32E and Swr1 with H2A.Z-H2B reveals that diverse H2A-H2B chaperones use common mechanisms of histone binding and regulating nucleosome functions.

DNA accessibility to regulatory proteins is significantly affected by nucleosome structure and dynamics. FACT (facilitates chromatin transcription) increases the accessibility of nucleosomal DNA but the mechanism and extent of this nucleosome reorganization are unknown. We report here the effects of FACT on single nucleosomes revealed with spFRET microscopy. FACT binding results in a dramatic, ATP-independent, and reversible uncoiling of DNA that affects at least 70% of the DNA in a nucleosome. A mutated version of FACT is defective in this uncoiling, and a histone mutation that suppresses phenotypes caused by this FACT mutation in vivo restores the uncoiling activity in vitro. Thus FACT-dependent nucleosome unfolding modulates the accessibility of nucleosomal DNA, and this is an important function of FACT in vivo.

yFACT (heterodimers of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Spt16-Pob3 combined with Nhp6) binds to and alters the properties of nucleosomes. The essential function of yFACT is not disrupted by deletion of the N-terminal domain (NTD) of Spt16 or by mutation of the middle domain of Pob3, but either alteration makes yeast cells sensitive to DNA replication stress. We have determined the structure of the Spt16 NTD and find evidence for a conserved potential peptide-binding site. Pob3-M also contains a putative binding site, and we show that these two sites perform an overlapping essential function. We find that yFACT can bind the N-terminal tails of some histones and that this interaction is important for yFACT-nucleosome binding. However, neither the Spt16 NTD nor a key residue in the putative Pob3-M-binding site was required for interactions with histone N termini or for yFACT-mediated nucleosome reorganization in vitro. Instead, both potential binding sites interact functionally with the C-terminal docking domain of the histone H2A. yFACT therefore appears to make multiple contacts with different sites within nucleosomes, and these interactions are partially redundant with one another. The docking domain of H2A is identified as an important participant in maintaining stability during yFACT-mediated nucleosome reorganization, suggesting new models for the mechanism of this activity.yFACT (yeast facilitator of chromatin transcription or transactions) is a heterodimer of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Spt16 and Pob3 proteins that is assisted in vivo and in vitro by the high mobility group type B domain DNA-binding protein Nhp6 (1, 2). In vitro, yFACT binds to histones (3, 4) and can alter the accessibility of DNA within nucleosomes without hydrolyzing ATP and without repositioning the histone octamer core relative to the DNA (5-7). This activity is different from ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling and has been called nucleosome reorganization (6). yFACT and related FACT complexes from other eukaryotes are needed for both normal regulation of transcription (5, 8 -11) and for DNA replication (12-20). Reorganization activity therefore appears to be important in a range of chromatin-based processes, including initiation and elongation of transcription, establishment and maintenance of normal chromatin, and survival during DNA replication stress. Consistent with this broad functional importance, FACT family members have been found in all eukaryotes examined, and at least one of the subunits is essential for viability in all cases reported (9,21,19,22).FACT complexes contain several distinct structural domains (16, 23), but little is known about how these domains contribute to FACT function. The middle domain of Pob3 (Pob3-M) forms two pleckstrin homology (PH) 4 folds that are closely juxtaposed (23), with highly conserved surface residues forming a patch in a region often associated with binding sites in PH domain proteins (23). Altering this patch caused increased sensitivity to hydroxyurea (HU) (23), a toxin that blocks dNTP synt...

Saccharomyces cerevisiae Spt6 protein is a conserved chromatin factor with several distinct functional domains, including a natively unstructured 30-residue N-terminal region that binds competitively with Spn1 or nucleosomes. To uncover physiological roles of these interactions, we isolated histone mutations that suppress defects caused by weakening Spt6:Spn1 binding with the spt6-F249K mutation. The strongest suppressor was H2A-N39K, which perturbs the point of contact between the two H2A-H2B dimers in an assembled nucleosome. Substantial suppression also was observed when the H2A-H2B interface with H3-H4 was altered, and many members of this class of mutations also suppressed a defect in another essential histone chaperone, FACT. Spt6 is best known as an H3-H4 chaperone, but we found that it binds with similar affinity to H2A-H2B or H3-H4. Like FACT, Spt6 is therefore capable of binding each of the individual components of a nucleosome, but unlike FACT, Spt6 did not produce endonuclease-sensitive reorganized nucleosomes and did not displace H2A-H2B dimers from nucleosomes. Spt6 and FACT therefore have distinct activities, but defects can be suppressed by overlapping histone mutations. We also found that Spt6 and FACT together are nearly as abundant as nucleosomes, with 24,000 Spt6 molecules, 42,000 FACT molecules, and 75,000 nucleosomes per cell. Histone mutations that destabilize interfaces within nucleosomes therefore reveal multiple spatial regions that have both common and distinct roles in the functions of these two essential and abundant histone chaperones. We discuss these observations in terms of different potential roles for chaperones in both promoting the assembly of nucleosomes and monitoring their quality.

Background: Spt16-M is a functionally important region of the essential histone chaperone FACT. Results: The Spt16-M crystal structure was determined, and mutations that affect FACT function were mapped to this double PH domain. Conclusion: Spt16-M resembles the Pob3 and Rtt106 histone chaperones and binds histones H3-H4. Significance: Mechanistic models of FACT are advanced, published genetic data are explained, and functionally important surfaces are identified.

FACT plays important roles in both gene transcription and DNA replication. However, how this protein complex is targeted to these two distinct cellular processes remains largely unknown. Here we show that ubiquitylation of the Spt16 subunit of FACT by Rtt101, the cullin subunit of an E3 ubiquitin ligase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, links FACT to DNA replication. We find Rtt101 interacts with and ubiquitylates Spt16 in vitro and in vivo. Deletion of RTT101 leads to reduced association of both FACT and the replicative helicase MCM with replication origins. Loss of Rtt101 also reduces binding of FACT to MCM, but not the association of FACT with Leo1 and Spt5, two proteins involved in transcription. Origin function is compromised in cells lacking Rtt101 or with an Spt16 mutation. These findings identify Spt16 as an Rtt101 substrate, and suggest that Spt16 ubiquitylation is important for FACT to function during DNA replication.Supplemental material is available at http://www.genesdev.org.

FACT (FAcilitates Chromatin Transcription/Transactions) plays a central role in transcription and replication in eukaryotes by both establishing and overcoming the repressive properties of chromatin. FACT promotes these opposing goals by interconverting nucleosomes between the canonical form and a more open reorganized form. In the forward direction, reorganization destabilizes nucleosomes, while the reverse reaction promotes nucleosome assembly. Nucleosome destabilization involves disrupting contacts among histone H2A-H2B dimers, (H3-H4) 2 tetramers, and DNA. Here we show that mutations that weaken the dimer:tetramer interface in nucleosomes suppress defects caused by FACT deficiency in vivo in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Mutating the gene that encodes the Spt16 subunit of FACT causes phenotypes associated with defects in transcription and replication, and we identify histone mutants that selectively suppress those associated with replication. Analysis of purified components suggests that the defective version of FACT is unable to maintain the reorganized nucleosome state efficiently, whereas nucleosomes with mutant histones are reorganized more easily than normal. The genetic suppression observed when the FACT defect is combined with the histone defect therefore reveals the importance of the dynamic reorganization of contacts within nucleosomes to the function of FACT in vivo, especially to FACT's apparent role in promoting progression of DNA replication complexes. We also show that an H2B mutation causes different phenotypes, depending on which of the two similar genes that encode this protein are altered, revealing unexpected functional differences between these duplicated genes and calling into question the practice of examining the effects of histone mutants by expressing them from a single plasmid-borne allele.