Journal
MOLECULAR AND BIOCHEMICAL PARASITOLOGY
Volume 191, Issue 2, Pages 53-57Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.molbiopara.2013.09.005
Keywords
Epigenetics; Histone variants; Transcriptional read-through; Chromatin; Trypanosomatid protozoa; Genetics
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Funding
- NCI Cancer Center Support Grant [P30 CA91842]
- National Institutes of Health [R0129646, T32 GM007067]
- Washington University
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Regions of transcription initiation and termination in kinetoplastid protists lack known eukaryotic promoter and terminator elements, although epigenetic marks such as histone variants and the modified DNA base J have been localized to these regions in Trypanosoma brucei, Trypanosoma cruzi, and/or Leishmania major. Phenotypes of base J mutants vary significantly across trypanosomatids, implying divergence in the epigenetic networks governing transcription during evolution. Here, we demonstrate that the histone variants H2A.Z and H2B.V are essential in L major using a powerful quantitative plasmid segregation-based test. In contrast, H3.V is not essential for viability or normal growth in Leishmania. Steady-state transcript levels and the efficiency of transcription termination at convergent strand switch regions (SSRs) in H3V-null parasites were comparable to WT parasites. Our genetic tests show a conservation of histone variant phenotypes between L major and T. brucei, unlike the diversity of phenotypes associated with genetic manipulation of the DNA base J modification. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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