Histone H3 Dynamics in Plant Cell Cycle and Development

Abstract

Chromatin is a macromolecular complex where DNA associates with histone proteins and a variety of non-histone proteins. Among the 4 histone types present in nucleosomes, histone H3 is encoded by a large number of genes in most eukaryotic species and is the histone that contains the largest variety of potential post-translational modifications in the N-terminal amino acid residues. In addition to centromeric histone H3, 2 major types of histone H3 exist, namely the canonical H3.1 and the variant H3.3. In this article, we review the most recent observations on the distinctive features of plant H3 proteins in terms of their expression and dynamics during the cell cycle and at various developmental stages. We also include a discussion on the histone H3 chaperones that actively participate in H3 deposition, in particular CAF-1, HIRA and ASF1, and on the putative plant homologs of human ATRX and DEK chaperones. Accumulating evidence confirms that the balanced deposition of H3.1 and H3.3 is of primary relevance for cell differentiation during plant organogenesis.

Histone H3 Dynamics Reveal Domains with Distinct Proliferation Potential in the Arabidopsis Root

“…It has been demonstrated previously that the use of different tags on H3 proteins render similar incorporation results (Goldberg et al, 2010). Since the tagged proteins recapitulated the expected pattern for endogenous proteins using cellular and genomic approaches Stroud et al, 2012;Wollmann et al, 2012;Otero et al, 2014), we considered them bona fide markers of H3.1 and H3.3.…”

“…H3 is one of the histone family members that contains variants and can be posttranslationally modified in many different residues (Kouzarides, 2007). While there are two canonical histones in vertebrates, the only canonical histone in plants is H3.1, differing from the variant H3.3 in only four amino acids that confer them different properties regarding genome distribution, posttranslational modifications, and binding to chaperones (Loyola and Almouzni, 2007;Goldberg et al, 2010;Shi et al, 2011;Stroud et al, 2012;Jacob et al, 2014;Otero et al, 2014). Remarkably, H3.1 is incorporated only during DNA replication in the S-phase, while H3.3 is exchanged in a cell cycle-independent manner (Loyola and Almouzni, 2007).…”

Stress-induced structural changes in plant chromatin

“…Histone chaperones control histone storage, assembly, and eviction [reviewed in 61,62]. Transcript levels of some histone chaperone genes in Arabidopsis and rice are differentially regulated upon abiotic stress [61,63], suggesting that they could be crucial players in the chromatin response to stress.…”

Emerging roles of chromatin in the maintenance of genome organization and function in plants

“…In addition, histone H1 binds to the linker DNA between nucleosomes and plays a crucial role in chromatin compaction [1]. The exchange of canonical histones with variant forms, for example, replacing canonical H3.1 with variant H3.3, contributes to a very significant increase in the diversity of nucleosome types present in the genome [2–4]. Another element of profound structural and functional relevance is the variety of post-translational modifications that occur in residues located in the histone tails [5, 6].…”