Sales-Gil R, Kommer DC, de Castro IJ, Amin HA, Vinciotti V, Sisu C, Vagnarelli P. Non-redundant functions of H2A.Z.1 and H2A.Z.2 in chromosome segregation and cell cycle progression.
EMBO Rep 2021;
22:e52061. [PMID:
34423893 PMCID:
PMC8567233 DOI:
10.15252/embr.202052061]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2020] [Revised: 07/26/2021] [Accepted: 08/03/2021] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
H2A.Z is a H2A‐type histone variant essential for many aspects of cell biology, ranging from gene expression to genome stability. From deuterostomes, H2A.Z evolved into two paralogues, H2A.Z.1 and H2A.Z.2, that differ by only three amino acids and are encoded by different genes (H2AFZ and H2AFV, respectively). Despite the importance of this histone variant in development and cellular homeostasis, very little is known about the individual functions of each paralogue in mammals. Here, we have investigated the distinct roles of the two paralogues in cell cycle regulation and unveiled non‐redundant functions for H2A.Z.1 and H2A.Z.2 in cell division. Our findings show that H2A.Z.1 regulates the expression of cell cycle genes such as Myc and Ki‐67 and its depletion leads to a G1 arrest and cellular senescence. On the contrary, H2A.Z.2, in a transcription‐independent manner, is essential for centromere integrity and sister chromatid cohesion regulation, thus playing a key role in chromosome segregation.
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