Journal of Biological Chemistry
Volume 276, Issue 41, 12 October 2001, Pages 38307-38319
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GENES: STRUCTURE AND REGULATION
Regulation of Global Acetylation in Mitosis through Loss of Histone Acetyltransferases and Deacetylases from Chromatin*

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Histone acetylation, a reversible modification of the core histones, is widely accepted to be involved in remodeling chromatin organization for genetic reprogramming. Histone acetylation is a dynamic process that is regulated by two classes of enzymes, the histone acetyltransferases (HATs) and histone deacetylases (HDACs). Although promoter-specific acetylation and deacetylation has received most of the recent attention, it is superimposed upon a broader acting and dynamic acetylation that profoundly affects many nuclear processes. In this study, we monitored this broader histone acetylation as cells enter and exit mitosis. In contrast to the hypothesis that HATs and HDACs remain bound to mitotic chromosomes to provide an epigenetic imprint for postmitotic reactivation of the genome, we observed that HATs and HDACs are spatially reorganized and displaced from condensing chromosomes as cells progress through mitosis. During mitosis, HATs and HDACs are unable to acetylate or deacetylate chromatin in situ despite remaining fully catalytically active when isolated from mitotic cells and assayed in vitro. Our results demonstrate that HATs and HDACs do not stably bind to the genome to function as an epigenetic mechanism of selective postmitotic gene activation. Our results, however, do support a role for spatial organization of these enzymes within the cell nucleus and their relationship to euchromatin and heterochromatin postmitotically in the reactivation of the genome.

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Published, JBC Papers in Press, July 30, 2001, DOI 10.1074/jbc.M100290200

*

This project was funded by operating grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (to D. P. B.-J. and X.-J. Y.). The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. The article must therefore be hereby marked “advertisement” in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

§

Supported by studentships from University Technologies International (University of Calgary), Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, and the Alberta Cancer Board. Present address: Dept. of Oncology, Cross Cancer Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 1Z2, Canada.

Supported by the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation (Germany).