Mediator binds to boundaries of chromosomal interaction domains and to proteins involved in DNA looping, RNA metabolism, chromatin remodeling, and actin assembly.

Mediator is a multi-unit molecular complex that plays a key role in transferring signals from transcriptional regulators to RNA polymerase II in eukaryotes. We have combined biochemical purification of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Mediator from chromatin with chromatin immunoprecipitation in order to reveal Mediator occupancy on DNA genome-wide, and to identify proteins interacting specifically with Mediator on the chromatin template. Tandem mass spectrometry of proteins in immunoprecipitates of mediator complexes revealed specific interactions between Mediator and the RSC, Arp2/Arp3, CPF, CF 1A and Lsm complexes in chromatin. These factors are primarily involved in chromatin remodeling, actin assembly, mRNA 3'-end processing, gene looping and mRNA decay, but they have also been shown to enter the nucleus and participate in Pol II transcription. Moreover, we have found that Mediator, in addition to binding Pol II promoters, occupies chromosomal interacting domain (CID) boundaries and that Mediator in chromatin associates with proteins that have been shown to interact with CID boundaries, such as Sth1, Ssu72 and histone H4. This suggests that Mediator plays a significant role in higher-order genome organization.

A dynamic interplay of nucleosome and Msn2 binding regulates kinetics of gene activation and repression following stress.

The transcription factor Msn2 mediates a significant proportion of the environmental stress response, in which a common cohort of genes changes expression in a stereotypic fashion upon exposure to any of a wide variety of stresses. We have applied genome-wide chromatin immunoprecipitation and nucleosome profiling to determine where Msn2 binds under stressful conditions and how that binding affects, and is affected by, nucleosome positioning. We concurrently determined the effect of Msn2 activity on gene expression following stress and demonstrated that Msn2 stimulates both activation and repression. We found that some genes responded to both intermittent and continuous Msn2 nuclear occupancy while others responded only to continuous occupancy. Finally, these studies document a dynamic interplay between nucleosomes and Msn2 such that nucleosomes can restrict access of Msn2 to its canonical binding sites while Msn2 can promote reposition, expulsion and recruitment of nucleosomes to alter gene expression. This interplay may allow the cell to discriminate between different types of stress signaling.

The Arabidopsis thaliana Med25 mediator subunit integrates environmental cues to control plant development.

Development in plants is controlled by abiotic environmental cues such as day length, light quality, temperature, drought, and salinity. These signals are sensed by a variety of systems and transmitted by different signal transduction pathways. Ultimately, these pathways are integrated to control expression of specific target genes, which encode proteins that regulate development and differentiation. The molecular mechanisms for such integration have remained elusive. We here show that a linear 130-amino-acids-long sequence in the Med25 subunit of the Arabidopsis thaliana Mediator is a common target for the drought response element binding protein 2A, zinc finger homeodomain 1, and Myb-like transcription factors which are involved in different stress response pathways. In addition, our results show that Med25 together with drought response element binding protein 2A also function in repression of PhyB-mediated light signaling and thus integrate signals from different regulatory pathways.

Chromatin remodelers clear nucleosomes from intrinsically unfavorable sites to establish nucleosome-depleted regions at promoters.

Most promoters in yeast contain a nucleosome-depleted region (NDR), but the mechanisms by which NDRs are established and maintained in vivo are currently unclear. We have examined how genome-wide nucleosome placement is altered in the absence of two distinct types of nucleosome remodeling activity. In mutants of both SNF2, which encodes the ATPase component of the Swi/Snf remodeling complex, and ASF1, which encodes a histone chaperone, distinct sets of gene promoters carry excess nucleosomes in their NDRs relative to wild-type. In snf2 mutants, excess promoter nucleosomes correlate with reduced gene expression. In both mutants, the excess nucleosomes occupy DNA sequences that are energetically less favorable for nucleosome formation, indicating that intrinsic histone-DNA interactions are not sufficient for nucleosome positioning in vivo, and that Snf2 and Asf1 promote thermodynamic equilibration of nucleosomal arrays. Cells lacking SNF2 or ASF1 still accomplish the changes in promoter nucleosome structure associated with large-scale transcriptional reprogramming. However, chromatin reorganization in the mutants is reduced in extent compared to wild-type cells, even though transcriptional changes proceed normally. In summary, active remodeling is required for distributing nucleosomes to energetically favorable positions in vivo and for reorganizing chromatin in response to changes in transcriptional activity.

Purification of a plant mediator from Arabidopsis thaliana identifies PFT1 as the Med25 subunit.

Mediator, a central coregulator of transcription, has been identified as a large protein complex in eukaryotes ranging from yeast to man. It is therefore remarkable that Mediator has not yet been identified within the plant kingdom. Here we identify Mediator in a plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. The plant Mediator subunits typically show very low homology to other species, but our biochemical purification identifies 21 conserved and six A. thaliana-specific Mediator subunits. Most notably, we identify the A. thaliana proteins STRUWWELPETER (SWP) and PHYTOCHROME AND FLOWERING TIME 1 (PFT1) as the Med14 and Med25 subunits, respectively. These findings show that specific plant Mediator subunits are linked to the regulation of specialized processes such as the control of cell proliferation and the regulation of flowering time in response to light quality. The identification of the plant Mediator will provide new tools and insights into the regulation of transcription in plants.