Structural-functional model of the mitotic chromosome

Extraction of histone H1 and decondensation of nuclear chromatin with various Mg-dependent organization levels under treatment with polyglutamic acid and distamycin

Chromatin in rat liver nuclei under conditions of low ionic strength (20-25 mM) and [Mg2+] from 2 to 5 mM has a condensed structure (100-200 nm globules) and gives the same CD signal (320-340 nm) at interaction with the antibiotic distamycin A (DM). Reducing [Mg2+] to 1 mM leads to chromatin decondensation to 30 nm structures and increases the CD signal. Poly-L-glutamic acid (PG) at weight ratio PG/DNA = 6 and in the presence of 5 mM Mg2+ extracts only about 1/8 of nuclear histone H1, preserving a condensed chromatin structure. Removal of about 1/4 of H1 at 3 mM Mg2+ leads to chromatin decondensation to 30 nm fibrils. Extraction of about half of histone H1 at [Mg2+] ≤ 2 mM results in chromatin refolding to nucleosome fibrils. PG-decondensation leads to a significant increase in the CD signal. The main H1 extraction occurs in 1-2 min, but at all Mg2+ concentrations the more slowly PG extracted fraction is found comprising 5-7% of nuclear H1. About 25% of leaving nuclear H1 can be extracted by PG in the presence of saturating DM concentration (molar DM/DNA = 0.1). H1 release depends significantly on the PG concentration. However, even at high weight ratio PG/DNA = 30 and DM/DNA = 0.1, about 5-10% of histone H1 remained in the nuclei. Decondensation of chromatin in the nucleus is not always proportional to the yield of extracted histone H1 and is weakened in the presence of positively charged DM or high concentrations of PG. Our results show that the interaction of DM with chromatin depends primarily on chromatin packaging, while PG extraction depends on [Mg2+] supporting this packaging.

Influence of chromatin structure, antibiotics, and endogenous histone methylation on phosphorylation of histones H1 and H3 in the presence of protein kinase A in rat liver nuclei in vitro

In vitro phosphorylation of histones H1 and H3 by cAMP-dependent protein kinase A and endogenous phosphokinases in the presence of [γ-³²P]ATP was studied in isolated rat liver nuclei with different variants of chromatin structural organization: condensed (diameter of fibrils 100-200 nm; N-1) and partly decondensed (diameter of fibrils ~30 nm; N-2). In the N-1 state histone, H1 is phosphorylated approximately twice as much than histone H3. Upon the decondensation of the chromatin in the N-2 state, 1.5-fold decrease of total phosphorylation of H1 is observed, while that of H3 does not change, although the endogenous phosphorylation of both histones is reduced by half. Changes in histone phosphorylation in the presence of low or high concentrations of distamycin and chromomycin differ for H1 and H3 in N-1 and N-2. It was found that distamycin (DM) stimulates the phosphorylation of tightly bound H1 fraction, which is not extractable by polyglutamic acid (PG), especially in N-1. Chromomycin (CM) increases the phosphorylation of both histones in PG extracts and in the nuclear pellets, particularly in N-2. At the same time, in N-1 one can detect phosphorylation of a tightly bound fraction of histones H1 whose N-termini are located on AT-rich sites that become inaccessible for protein kinase in the process of chromatin decondensation in N-2. At the same time, in N-2 the accessibility for protein kinase A of tightly bound H1 fractions, whose N-termini are located on GC-rich sites, increases dramatically. High concentrations of both CM and DM in N-1 and N-2 stimulated phosphorylation of the non-extractable by PG fraction of H1 whose N-termini are located on sites where AT ≈ GC. CM at high concentration stimulated 4-7 times the phosphorylation of a small fraction of H3, which is extracted by PG from both types of nuclei. We detected an effect of endogenous methylation of histones H1 and H3 in the nuclei on their subsequent phosphorylation depending on the chromatin structure, histone-chromatin binding strength, and concentration of DM.

Micromechanical studies of mitotic chromosomes

Mitotic chromosomes respond elastically to forces in the nanonewton range, a property important to transduction of stresses used as mechanical regulatory signals during cell division. In addition to being important biologically, chromosome elasticity can be used as a tool for investigating the folding of chromatin. This paper reviews experiments studying stretching and bending stiffness of mitotic chromosomes, plus experiments where changes in chromosome elasticity resulting from chemical and enzyme treatments were used to analyse connectivity of chromatin inside chromosomes. Experiments with nucleases indicate that non-DNA elements constraining mitotic chromatin must be isolated from one another, leading to the conclusion that mitotic chromosomes have a chromatin 'network' or 'gel' organization, with stretches of chromatin strung between 'crosslinking' points. The as-yet unresolved questions of the identities of the putative chromatin crosslinkers and their organization inside mitotic chromosomes are discussed.