Structural Insights into Histone Binding and Nucleosome Assembly by Chromatin Assembly Factor-1

Overview

Journal Science

Specialty Science

Date 2023 Aug 24

PMID 37616371

Authors

Chao-Pei Liu

Zhenyu Yu

Jun Xiong

Jie Hu

Aoqun Song

Dongbo Ding

Cong Yu

Na Yang

Mingzhu Wang

Juan Yu

Peini Hou

Kangning Zeng

Zhenyu Li

Zhuqiang Zhang

Xinzheng Zhang

Wei Li

Zhiguo Zhang

Bing Zhu

Guohong Li

Rui-Ming Xu

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Chromatin inheritance entails de novo nucleosome assembly after DNA replication by chromatin assembly factor-1 (CAF-1). Yet direct knowledge about CAF-1's histone binding mode and nucleosome assembly process is lacking. In this work, we report the crystal structure of human CAF-1 in the absence of histones and the cryo-electron microscopy structure of CAF-1 in complex with histones H3 and H4. One histone H3-H4 heterodimer is bound by one CAF-1 complex mainly through the p60 subunit and the acidic domain of the p150 subunit. We also observed a dimeric CAF-1-H3-H4 supercomplex in which two H3-H4 heterodimers are poised for tetramer assembly and discovered that CAF-1 facilitates right-handed DNA wrapping of H3-H4 tetramers. These findings signify the involvement of DNA in H3-H4 tetramer formation and suggest a right-handed nucleosome precursor in chromatin replication.

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