TY - JOUR
T1 - Nuclear architecture and spatial positioning help establish transcriptional states of telomeres in yeast
AU - Feuerbach, Frank
AU - Galy, Vincent
AU - Trelles-Sticken, Edgar
AU - Fromont-Racine, Micheline
AU - Jacquier, Alain
AU - Gilson, Eric
AU - Olivo-Marin, Jean Christophe
AU - Scherthan, Harry
AU - Nehrbass, Ulf
N1 - Funding Information:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are indebted to R. Sternglanz and D. Zappulla (Stony Brook University, NY), K. Nasmyth (University of Vienna), E. Fabre (Institut Pasteur, Paris) and G. Fourel (ENS, Lyon, France) for their kind gift of strains and plasmids. We thank V. Geli (CNRS, Marseille, France) for critical reading of the manuscript. F. F. is supported by a fellowship from Association Nationale de la Recherche contre le SIDA and V. G. is supported by a fellowship from the French Ministry of Research. Work was supported in part by a grant from the Action pour la Recherche contre le Cancer (ARC). Correspondence and requests for material should be addressed to U.N. Supplementary Information is available on Nature Cell Biology’s website (http://cellbio.nature.com).
PY - 2002/3
Y1 - 2002/3
N2 - Recent experiments have shown that gene repression can be correlated with relocation of genes to heterochromatin-rich silent domains. Here, we investigate whether nuclear architecture and spatial positioning can contribute directly to the transcriptional activity of a genetic locus in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. By disassembling telomeric silent domains without altering the chromatin-mediated silencing machinery, we show that the transcriptional activity of silencer-reporter constructs depends on intranuclear position. This demonstrates that telomeric silent domains are actively involved in transcriptional silencing. Employing fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) in combination with genetic assays, we demonstrate that telomeres control the establishment of transcriptional states by reversible partitioning with the perinuclear silencing domains. Anchoring telomeres interferes with their ability to assume an active state, whereas disassembly of silencing domains prevents telomeres from assuming a repressed state. Our data support a model in which domains of enriched transcriptional regulators allow genes to determine transcriptional states by spatial positioning.
AB - Recent experiments have shown that gene repression can be correlated with relocation of genes to heterochromatin-rich silent domains. Here, we investigate whether nuclear architecture and spatial positioning can contribute directly to the transcriptional activity of a genetic locus in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. By disassembling telomeric silent domains without altering the chromatin-mediated silencing machinery, we show that the transcriptional activity of silencer-reporter constructs depends on intranuclear position. This demonstrates that telomeric silent domains are actively involved in transcriptional silencing. Employing fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) in combination with genetic assays, we demonstrate that telomeres control the establishment of transcriptional states by reversible partitioning with the perinuclear silencing domains. Anchoring telomeres interferes with their ability to assume an active state, whereas disassembly of silencing domains prevents telomeres from assuming a repressed state. Our data support a model in which domains of enriched transcriptional regulators allow genes to determine transcriptional states by spatial positioning.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0036122425&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/ncb756
DO - 10.1038/ncb756
M3 - Article
C2 - 11862215
AN - SCOPUS:0036122425
SN - 1465-7392
VL - 4
SP - 214
EP - 221
JO - Nature Cell Biology
JF - Nature Cell Biology
IS - 3
ER -