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Review
. 2015 Jul 15;6(3):607-21.
doi: 10.3390/genes6030607.

Nucleosome Dancing at the Tempo of Histone Tail Acetylation

Angélique Galvani  1 , Christophe Thiriet  2
Affiliations
Review

Nucleosome Dancing at the Tempo of Histone Tail Acetylation

Angélique Galvani et al. Genes (Basel). .

Abstract

The impact of histone acetylation on transcription was revealed over 50 years ago by Allfrey and colleagues. However, it took decades for an understanding of the fine mechanism by which this posttranslational modification affects chromatin structure and promotes transcription. Here, we review breakthroughs linking histone tail acetylation, histone dynamics, and transcription. We also discuss the histone exchange during transcription and highlight the important function of a pool of non-chromatinized histones in chromatin dynamics.

Keywords: chromatin dynamics; histone acetylation; transcription.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic representation of the histone pools in the nucleus. The top scheme represents nuclear histones compartmentalized into two reservoirs, the labile histones (associated with various chaperones) and the chromosomal histones. The lower schemes illustrate the impact of the arrival of histones within the nucleus on the equilibrium of the histones’ reservoirs.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Model of the effects of histone acetylation on chromatin structure and dynamics. The acetylation of histones induced a decrease in nucleosome stacking involving chromatin remodeling at the promoter level (A) and within the coding region (B). Notably, the relaxation of chromatin in (A) can be promoted by HAT activity associated with transcription factors. In (B) the dashed arrows correspond to stochastic events such as octamer exchange, in contrast to the exchange of the H2A/H2B histone dimer, which is mechanistically linked to RNA polymerase II passage through the nucleosome (green arrow).
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