[Opposite Effects of Histone H1 and HMGN5 Protein on Distant Interactions in Chromatin].

Transcriptional enhancers in the cell nuclei typically interact with the target promoters in cis over long stretches of chromatin, but the mechanism of this communication remains unknown. Previously we have developed a defined in vitro system for quantitative analysis of the rate of distant enhancer-promoter communication (EPC) and have shown that the chromatin fibers maintain efficient distant EPC in cis. Here we investigate the roles of linker histone H1 and HMGN5 protein in EPC. A considerable negative effect of histone H1 on EPC depending on its C- and N-tails was shown. Protein HMGN5 that affects chromatin compaction and is associated with active chromatin counteracts EPC inhibition by H1. The data suggest that the efficiency of the interaction between the enhancer and the promoter depends on the structure and dynamics of the chromatin fiber localized between them and can be regulated by proteins associated with chromatin.

Transcription-induced DNA supercoiling: New roles of intranucleosomal DNA loops in DNA repair and transcription.

RNA polymerase II (Pol II) transcription through chromatin is accompanied by formation of small intranucleosomal DNA loops. Pol II captured within a small loop drives accumulation of DNA supercoiling, facilitating further transcription. DNA breaks relieve supercoiling and induce Pol II arrest, allowing detection of DNA damage hidden in chromatin structure.

[Structure and function of histone chaperone FACT].

FACT is heterodimer protein complex and histone chaperone that plays an important role in maintaining and modifying chromatin structure during various DNA-dependent processes. FACT is involved in nucleosome assembly de novo and in the preservation and recovery of the nucleosome structure during and after transcription, replication and repair of DNA. During transcript elongation FACT reduces the height of the nucleosome barrier and supports survival of the nucleosomes during and after passage of RNA polymerase II. In this process FACT interacts with histone H2A-H2B dimer in nucleosomes, thus facilitating uncoiling of nucleosomal DNA from the octamer of histones; it also facilitates subsequent recovery of the canonical structure of the nucleosome after transcription. FACT also plays an important role in transformation of human cells and in maintaining the viability of the tumor cells.

PARP1 Inhibitors: antitumor drug design.

The poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1) enzyme is one of the promising molecular targets for the discovery of antitumor drugs. PARP1 is a common nuclear protein (1-2 million molecules per cell) serving as a "sensor" for DNA strand breaks. Increased PARP1 expression is sometimes observed in melanomas, breast cancer, lung cancer, and other neoplastic diseases. The PARP1 expression level is a prognostic indicator and is associated with a poor survival prognosis. There is evidence that high PARP1 expression and treatment-resistance of tumors are correlated. PARP1 inhibitors are promising antitumor agents, since they act as chemo- and radiosensitizers in the conventional therapy of malignant tumors. Furthermore, PARP1 inhibitors can be used as independent, effective drugs against tumors with broken DNA repair mechanisms. Currently, third-generation PARP1 inhibitors are being developed, many of which are undergoing Phase II clinical trials. In this review, we focus on the properties and features of the PARP1 inhibitors identified in preclinical and clinical trials. We also describe some problems associated with the application of PARP1 inhibitors. The possibility of developing new PARP1 inhibitors aimed at DNA binding and transcriptional activity rather than the catalytic domain of the protein is discussed.

[Molecular mechanisms of regulaion of transcription by PARP1].

Poly-ADP-ribosylation is a covalent post-translational modification of nuclear proteins that plays a key role in the immediate response of cells to genotoxic stress. Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) synthesizes long and branched polymers of ADP-ribose onto acceptor regulator proteins, and thereby change their activity. Metabolism of poly-ADP regulates DNA repair, cell cycle, replication, aging and death of cells, as well as remodeling of chromatin structure and gene transcription. PARP1 is one of the most common nuclear proteins; it is responsible for production of -90% of the polymers of ADP-ribose in the cell. PARP1 inhibitors are promising antitumor agents. At the same time, the current inhibitors target the catalytic domain of PARP1 that leads to.a number of side effects. Therefore, considering the potential benefits of PARP1 inhibitors for the treatment of multiple diseases, it is necessary to develop new strategies of PARP1 inhibition. PARP1 has a modular structure and has catalytic, transcription and DNA-binding activities. The review focuses primarily on the role of PARP1 in transcriptional regulation; the structure and functional organization of PARP1, as well as multiple ways of regulation of chromatin remodeling, DNA methylation and transcription are covered in detail. Studies of the molecular mechanisms of regulation of transcription factor PARP1 can serve as a basis for search and design of new inhibitors.

Nucleosome positioning and composition modulate in silico chromatin flexibility.

The dynamic organization of chromatin plays an essential role in the regulation of gene expression and in other fundamental cellular processes. The underlying physical basis of these activities lies in the sequential positioning, chemical composition, and intermolecular interactions of the nucleosomes-the familiar assemblies of ∼150 DNA base pairs and eight histone proteins-found on chromatin fibers. Here we introduce a mesoscale model of short nucleosomal arrays and a computational framework that make it possible to incorporate detailed structural features of DNA and histones in simulations of short chromatin constructs. We explore the effects of nucleosome positioning and the presence or absence of cationic N-terminal histone tails on the 'local' inter-nucleosomal interactions and the global deformations of the simulated chains. The correspondence between the predicted and observed effects of nucleosome composition and numbers on the long-range communication between the ends of designed nucleosome arrays lends credence to the model and to the molecular insights gleaned from the simulated structures. We also extract effective nucleosome-nucleosome potentials from the simulations and implement the potentials in a larger-scale computational treatment of regularly repeating chromatin fibers. Our results reveal a remarkable effect of nucleosome spacing on chromatin flexibility, with small changes in DNA linker length significantly altering the interactions of nucleosomes and the dimensions of the fiber as a whole. In addition, we find that these changes in nucleosome positioning influence the statistical properties of long chromatin constructs. That is, simulated chromatin fibers with the same number of nucleosomes exhibit polymeric behaviors ranging from Gaussian to worm-like, depending upon nucleosome spacing. These findings suggest that the physical and mechanical properties of chromatin can span a wide range of behaviors, depending on nucleosome positioning, and that care must be taken in the choice of models used to interpret the experimental properties of long chromatin fibers.

[Molecular mechanisms of transcription through a nuclesome by RNA polymerase II].

The Pol II-type mechanism is conserved from yeast to human. After initiation of transcription, Pol II can be paused within the early transcribed region of a gene. Then Pol II overcomes the initial nucleosomal barrier, and efficiently proceeds through chromatin. At low- to moderate-level transcription progression of Pol II is characterized by displacement/exchange of only H2A/H2B dimer(s) and hexasome survival, likely mediated through formation of small intranucleosomal DNA loops. This mechanism helps to preserve the "histone" code during transcription. As the transcription rate is increased, the distance between transcribing Pol II complexes becomes shorter, and trailing Pol II complexes may encounter the hexasome formed after previous transcription round, before the H2A/H2B dimer re-binds to the hexasome. In this case an unstable intermediate with a smaller number of DNA-histone contacts is formed, resulting in eviction of the histone hexamer from DNA in vitro; therefore here all core histones are evicted/exchanged in vivo. Various protein factors and histone chaperones are involved in chromatin transcription by Pol II in vivo.

Structural Analysis of the Key Intermediate Formed during Transcription through a Nucleosome.

Transcription through chromatin by different RNA polymerases produces different biological outcomes and is accompanied by either nucleosome survival at the original location (Pol II-type mechanism) or backward nucleosome translocation along DNA (Pol III-type mechanism). It has been proposed that differences in the structure of the key intermediates formed during transcription dictate the fate of the nucleosomes. To evaluate this possibility, structure of the key intermediate formed during transcription by Pol III-type mechanism was studied by DNase I footprinting and molecular modeling. The Pol III-type mechanism is characterized by less efficient formation of the key intermediate required for nucleosome survival (Ø-loop, Pol II-type mechanism), most likely due to steric interference between the RNA polymerase and DNA in the Ø-loop. The data suggest that the lower efficiency of Ø-loop formation induces formation of a lower nucleosomal barrier and nucleosome translocation during transcription by Pol III-type mechanism.

TATA box occupancy in the SV40 transcription elongation complex.

In order to gain insight into requirements for template activation and commitment in mammalian transcription, TATA site occupancy was measured in native SV40 viral transcription complexes that were in the process of transcription elongation at the time of cell lysis. This was accomplished by quantifying resistance to restriction enzyme digestion of transcription complexes in nuclear lysate. The rate of cleavage at the TATA site of the late gene in the native complex was slower than that of a bare DNA control, both for wild-type virus and for a virus containing a TATA consensus sequence. These results suggest that the TATA site in the transcription elongation complex in vivo is occupied with transcription factor TBP/TFIID. When considered in light of previous work, these findings support a model in which transcription activation involves reinitiation from a promoter that contains both activator and TFIID bound in a stable complex.

The bacteriophage P1 HumD protein is a functional homolog of the prokaryotic UmuD'-like proteins and facilitates SOS mutagenesis in Escherichia coli.

The Escherichia coli umuD and umuC genes comprise an operon and encode proteins that are involved in the mutagenic bypass of normally replication-inhibiting DNA lesions. UmuD is, however, unable to function in this process until it undergoes a RecA-mediated cleavage reaction to generate UmuD'. Many homologs of umuDC have now been identified. Most are located on bacterial chromosomes or on broad-host-range R plasmids. One such putative homolog, humD (homolog of umuD) is, however, found on the bacteriophage P1 genome. Interestingly, humD differs from other umuD homologs in that it encodes a protein similar in size to the posttranslationally generated UmuD' protein and not UmuD, nor is it in an operon with a cognate umuC partner. To determine if HumD is, in fact, a bona fide homolog of the prokaryotic UmuD'-like mutagenesis proteins, we have analyzed the ability of HumD to complement UmuD' functions in vivo as well as examined HumD's physical properties in vitro. When expressed from a high-copy-number plasmid, HumD restored cellular mutagenesis and increased UV survival to normally nonmutable recA430 lexA(Def) and UV-sensitive DeltaumuDC recA718 lexA(Def) strains, respectively. Complementing activity was reduced when HumD was expressed from a low-copy-number plasmid, but this observation is explained by immunoanalysis which indicates that HumD is normally poorly expressed in vivo. In vitro analysis revealed that like UmuD', HumD forms a stable dimer in solution and is able to interact with E. coli UmuC and RecA nucleoprotein filaments. We conclude, therefore, that bacteriophage P1 HumD is a functional homolog of the UmuD'-like proteins, and we speculate as to the reasons why P1 might require the activity of such a protein in vivo.

Unusual insertion element polymorphisms in the promoter and terminator regions of the mucAB-like genes of R471a and R446b.

We have previously identified umu-complementing genes on two incL/M plasmids, R471a and R446b (C. Ho et al., J. Bacteriol., 175 (1993) 5411-5419). Molecular analysis of these genes revealed that they are more structurally and functionally related to mucAB from the incN plasmid pKM101 than to other members of the previously identified Umu-like family. As a consequence, we have termed these new homologs mucAB(R471a) and mucAB(R446b) respectively. Interestingly, while the location of the mucAB-like genes is essentially the same in both R471a and R446b, the regions immediately flanking the mucAB-like genes are highly polymorphic. For example, 5' to mucAB(R471a) we found an insert that appears to be a novel retroelement encoding a putative reverse transcriptase (RT). This RT is related to the reverse transcriptases encoded by group II introns but is embedded in a retron-like context. Immediately 3' to the mucAB(R471a) locus is a putative insertion element of a sparsely-dispersed class not previously reported from enteric bacteria. Both the RT and insertion element are absent in R446b. These observations suggest that the mucAB-like genes from R471a and R446b are located within regions of the R-plasmids that perhaps were once (or still are) mobile genetic elements. Such observations might help explain the distribution of umu-like genes on R-plasmids and bacterial chromosomes.

Identification of a DinB/UmuC homolog in the archeon Sulfolobus solfataricus.

To date, eight closely related homologs of the Escherichia coli UmuC protein have been identified. All of these homologs appear to play critical roles in damage-inducible mutagenesis in enterobacteriaceae. Recently, a distantly related UmuC-homolog, DinB, has also been identified in E. coli. Using the polymerase chain reaction together with degenerate primers designed against conserved regions found in UmuC-like proteins, we have identified a new member of the UmuC-superfamily in the archeon Sulfolobus solfataricus. This new homolog shows high sequence similarity to DinB and a lower level of similarity to UmuC. As a consequence, we have called this new gene dbh (dinB homolog). Analysis of approximately 2.7 kb DNA encompassing the dbh region revealed several open reading frames (orfs). One, encoding a putative ribokinase, was located immediately upstream of dbh. This orf overlaps the dbh gene by 4 bp suggesting that both proteins might be coordinately expressed. Further upstream of the ribokinase-dbh locus was another orf encoding a potential ATPase homologous to two uncharacterized S. cerevisiae proteins (YD9346.02c and SC38KCXVI_20) and another E. coli DNA repair protein, RuvB. While this is the first report of a UmuC-like homolog in an archeon, we detected additional homologs using protein sequence comparisons in Gram-positive bacteria, cyanobacteria, and among potential human EST products, indicating that UmuC-related proteins comprise a ubiquitous superfamily of proteins probably involved in DNA repair and mutagenesis.

Characterization of the umu-complementing operon from R391.

In addition to conferring resistances to antibiotics and heavy metals, certain R factors carry genes involved in mutagenic DNA repair. These plasmid-encoded genes are structurally and functionally related to the chromosomally encoded umuDC genes of Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium. Three such plasmid operons, mucAB, impCAB, and samAB, have been characterized at the molecular level. Recently, we have identified three additional umu-complementing operons from IncJ plasmid R391 and IncL/M plasmids R446b and R471a. We report here the molecular characterization of the R391 umu-complementing operon. The nucleotide sequence of the minimal R plasmid umu-complementing (rum) region revealed an operon of two genes, rumA(R391) and rumB(R391), with an upstream regulatory signal strongly resembling LexA-binding sites. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the RumAB(R391) proteins are approximately equally diverged in sequence from the chromosomal UmuDC proteins and the other plasmid-encoded Umu-like proteins and represent a new subfamily. Genetic characterization of the rumAB(R391) operon revealed that in recA+ and recA1730 backgrounds, the rumAB(R391) operon was phenotypically indistinguishable from mucAB. In contrast, however, the rumAB(R391) operon gave levels of mutagenesis that were intermediate between those given by mucAB and umuDC in a recA430 strain. The latter phenotype was shown to correlate with the reduced posttranslational processing of the RumA(R391) protein to its mutagenically active form, RumA'(R391). Thus, the rumAB(R391) operon appears to possess characteristics that are reminiscent of both chromosome and plasmid-encoded umu-like operons.

Isolation and characterization of novel plasmid-encoded umuC mutants.

Most inducible mutagenesis in Escherichia coli is dependent upon the activity of the UmuDC proteins. The role of UmuC in this process is poorly understood, possibly because of the limited number of genetically characterized umuC mutants. To better understand the function of the UmuC protein in mutagenic DNA repair, we have isolated several novel plasmid-encoded umuC mutants. A multicopy plasmid that expressed UmuC at physiological levels was constructed and randomly mutagenized in vitro by exposure to hydroxylamine. Mutated plasmids were introduced into the umu tester strain RW126, and 16 plasmids that were unable to promote umuC-dependent spontaneous mutator activity were identified by a colorimetric papillation assay. Interestingly, these plasmid mutants fell into two classes: (i) 5 were expression mutants that produced either too little or too much wild-type UmuC protein, and (ii) 11 were plasmids with structural changes in the UmuC protein. Although hydroxylamine mutagenesis was random, most of the structural mutants identified in the screen were localized to two regions of the UmuC protein; four mutations were found in a stretch of 30 amino acids (residues 133 to 162) in the middle of the protein, while four other mutations (three of which resulted in a truncated UmuC protein) were localized in the last 50 carboxyl-terminal amino acid residues. These new plasmid umuC mutants, together with the previously identified chromosomal umuC25, umuC36, and umuC104 mutations that we have also cloned, should prove extremely useful in dissecting the genetic and biochemical activities of UmuC in mutagenic DNA repair.

A rapid method for cloning mutagenic DNA repair genes: isolation of umu-complementing genes from multidrug resistance plasmids R391, R446b, and R471a.

Genetic and physiological experiments have demonstrated that the products of the umu-like operon are directly required for mutagenic DNA repair in enterobacteria. To date, five such operons have been cloned and studied at the molecular level. Given the apparent wide occurrence of these mutagenic DNA repair genes in enterobacteria, it seems likely that related genes will be identified in other bacterial species and perhaps even in higher organisms. We are interested in identifying such genes. However, standard methods based on either DNA or protein cross-hybridization are laborious and, given the overall homology between previously identified members of this family (41 to 83% at the protein level), would probably have limited success. To facilitate the rapid identification of more diverse umu-like genes, we have constructed two Escherichia coli strains that allow us to identify umu-like genes after phenotypic complementation assays. With these two strains, we have cloned novel umu-like genes from three R plasmids, the IncJ plasmid R391 and two IncL/M plasmids, R446b and R471a.

Construction and expression of diphtheria toxin-encoding gene derivatives in Escherichia coli.

We reported earlier that in the periplasmic space of Escherichia coli, truncated derivatives of diphtheria toxin undergo limited proteolysis [Zdanovsky et al., Mol. Biol. 22 (1988) 1037-1293]. Here, we present data indicating that this proteolysis is reduced in cells bearing a mutation in the degP gene. We have also constructed hybrid genes whose products are not secreted into the periplasm. These hybrid genes were expressed in E. coli from both the pR promoter, controlled by the heat-inducible CI857 repressor, and from the P(lac) promoter, controlled by the IPTG-inducible LacI repressor. The latter system proved to be more productive.

Translation enhancing properties of the 5'-leader of potato virus X genomic RNA.

The double-stranded DNA copy corresponding to the 5'-nontranslated alpha beta-leader of potato virus X (PVX) genomic RNA (positions -3 to-85 according to AUG initiator) was chemically synthesized and fused to the transcription plasmids containing three different reporter genes: neomycinphosphotransferase type II (NPT II) gene, Bacillus thuringiensis coleopteran-specific toxic protein gene and beta-glucuronidase (GUS) gene. Expression of the reporter genes in vitro and in plant protoplasts (in the case of GUS gene) reveals that the alpha beta-leader of PVX RNA acts as a translation enhancer despite the presence of the upstream vector-derived sequence and irrespective of the length of the spacer sequence preceding the reporter genes.

[Primary structure of RNA 3 of barley stripe mosaic virus and its variability]. / Pervichnaia struktura RNK 3 virusa shtrikhovatoi mozaiki iachemnia i ee variabel'nost'.

The complete nucleotide sequence was determined for three variants of the third genomic component of BSMV strain Argentina mild. The common variant, RNA 3 (2797 nucleotide), contains two open reading frames (ORFs) coding for two proteins with Mr of 74,229 (putative BSMV RNA polymerase) and Mr of 16,994. The second ORF is expressed from a subgenomic RNA. The extended variant RNA 3 differs from the common one only by the presence of a direct tandem repeat 351-363 nucleotides in length (with some variability) encompassing part of the leader sequence and the beginning of the first ORF. The resulting protein has a Mr of about 86,000. The defective variant, RNA 4, carries a deletion of 185 nucleotides in the 3'-end proximal part of the first ORF, which shortens the product to a Mr of 60,344.