Histone H1: Lessons from Drosophila

Bayona-Feliú, Aleix; Casas-Lamesa, Anna; Carbonell, Albert; Climent-Cantó, Paula; Tatarski, Miloš; Pérez-Montero, Salvador; Azorı́n, Fernando; Bernués, Jordi

doi:10.1016/j.bbagrm.2015.09.001

Cited by 20 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Humans show a similar complexity. In contrast, H1 diversity in Drosophila melanogaster is low since it contains only one somatic (dH1) and a second germline specific (dBigH1) variant 5 , 6 . Note, however, that somatic dH1 is encoded by a multigene family, which is unusual since, in most metazoa, H1 variants are encoded by single-copy genes 6 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In contrast, H1 diversity in Drosophila melanogaster is low since it contains only one somatic (dH1) and a second germline specific (dBigH1) variant 5 , 6 . Note, however, that somatic dH1 is encoded by a multigene family, which is unusual since, in most metazoa, H1 variants are encoded by single-copy genes 6 . Unicellular eukaryotes such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae , Aspergillus nidulans and Tetrahymena termophila also contain a single histone H1-like gene 7 – 9 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Linker histone H1 prevents R-loop accumulation and genome instability in heterochromatin

et al. 2017

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Linker histone H1 is an important structural component of chromatin that stabilizes the nucleosome and compacts the nucleofilament into higher-order structures. The biology of histone H1 remains, however, poorly understood. Here we show that Drosophila histone H1 (dH1) prevents genome instability as indicated by the increased γH2Av (H2AvS137P) content and the high incidence of DNA breaks and sister-chromatid exchanges observed in dH1-depleted cells. Increased γH2Av occurs preferentially at heterochromatic elements, which are upregulated upon dH1 depletion, and is due to the abnormal accumulation of DNA:RNA hybrids (R-loops). R-loops accumulation is readily detectable in G1-phase, whereas γH2Av increases mainly during DNA replication. These defects induce JNK-mediated apoptosis and are specific of dH1 depletion since they are not observed when heterochromatin silencing is relieved by HP1a depletion. Altogether, our results suggest that histone H1 prevents R-loops-induced DNA damage in heterochromatin and unveil its essential contribution to maintenance of genome stability.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linker histone H1 prevents R-loop accumulation and genome instability in heterochromatin

et al. 2017

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“…Female-specific variants accumulate in the oocyte and are retained during early embryogenesis . In Drosophila, H1 complexity is low since it encodes for a single ubiquitously expressed somatic dH1 variant and a single germline specific dBigH1 variant (reviewed in Bayona-Feliu et al, 2016). dBigH1 is expressed in both the female and male germline, and it is present in the early embryo until zygotic genome activation (ZGA) at cellularization (Carbonell et al, 2017;Pérez-Montero et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In response to Liet al.: Linker histones function inDrosophilaembryogenesis

Carbonell

Henn

Perez-Roldan

et al. 2020

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In an earlier paper (Pérez-Montero et al., 2013), we reported that the embryonic linker histone of Drosophila dBigH1 was essential for early Drosophila embryogenesis since embryos homozygous for the bigH1 100 mutation showed strong defects and did not survive beyond zygotic genome activation (ZGA) at cellularization. Recent results challenge these observations since null bigH1 mutations generated by CRISPR/Cas9 methodology turn out to be homozygous viable, as reported in Li et al. (2019) and here. In this regard, Li et al. described a novel mechanism by which lack of dBigH1 is compensated by the early expression of maternal dH1. Here, we confirm this observation and show that such compensatory mechanism is not activated in bigH1 100 embryos.

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“…Drosophila melanogaster, a genetically tractable organism with a well characterized developmental program, has contributed significantly to our understanding of the functions of H1 (for reviews see Hergeth and Schneider 2015;and Bayona-Feliu et al 2016). Drosophila his1 gene exists in a multi-copy gene cluster at the histone locus, similar to the situation in other higher eukaryotes, therefore genetic knock-out of his1 has not been utilized for the dissection of H1 function even though recent advances in genome engineering has made it possible (Günesdogan et al 2010;McKay et al 2015;Zhang et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Compensatory replacement of the BigH1 variant histone by canonical H1 supports normal embryonic development in Drosophila

Han

Chen

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Histone variants carry specific functions in addition to those fulfilled by their canonical counterparts. Variants of the linker Histone H1 are prevalent in vertebrates and based on the pattern of their expression, many are presumed to function during germline and the earliest zygotic stages of development.While the existence of multiple H1 variants has hampered their study in vertebrates, a single variant, BigH1, was identified in Drosophila, promising to accelerate our understanding of the biological functions of H1 and H1 variants.Here we uncovered evidence for a compensatory activity that loads maternal H1 onto BigH1-devoid chromatin. Remarkably, this H1-based chromatin state is fully functional in supporting normal embryonic development, suggesting that H1 carries the essential function of the BigH1 molecule under the same developmental context. In addition, we discovered that this compensatory replacement of BigH1 with H1 might be limited to rapidly cycling cells in early embryos.

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Histone H1: Lessons from Drosophila

Cited by 20 publications

References 58 publications

Linker histone H1 prevents R-loop accumulation and genome instability in heterochromatin

Linker histone H1 prevents R-loop accumulation and genome instability in heterochromatin

In response to Liet al.: Linker histones function inDrosophilaembryogenesis

Compensatory replacement of the BigH1 variant histone by canonical H1 supports normal embryonic development in Drosophila

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