Chromatin-remodelling factor CHRAC contains the ATPases ISWI and topoisomerase II

Patrick D. Varga-Weisz, Matthias Wilm, Edgar Bonte, Katia Dumas, Matthias Mann and Peter B. Becker ()
Additional contact information
Patrick D. Varga-Weisz: European Molecular Biology Laboratory
Matthias Wilm: European Molecular Biology Laboratory
Edgar Bonte: European Molecular Biology Laboratory
Katia Dumas: European Molecular Biology Laboratory
Matthias Mann: European Molecular Biology Laboratory
Peter B. Becker: European Molecular Biology Laboratory

Nature, 1997, vol. 388, issue 6642, 598-602

Abstract: Abstract Repressive chromatin structures need to be unravelled to allow DNA-binding proteins access to their target sequences. This de-repression constitutes an important point at which transcription and presumably other nuclear processes can be regulated1,2. Energy-consuming enzyme complexes that facilitate the interaction of transcription factors with chromatin by modifying nucleosome structure are involved in this regulation3,4,5. One such factor, nucleosome-remodelling factor (NURF), has been isolated from Drosophila embryo extracts4,6,7. We have now identified a chromatin-accessibility complex (CHRAC) which uses energy to increase the general accessibility of DNA in chromatin. However, unlike other known chromatin remodelling factors, CHRAC can also function during chromatin assembly: it uses ATP to convert irregular chromatin into a regular array of nucleosomes with even spacing. CHRAC combines enzymes that modulate nucleosome structure and DNA topology. Using mass spectrometry, we identified two of the five CHRAC subunits as the ATPase ISWI, which is also part of NURF6,8, and topoisomerase II. The presence of ISWI in different contexts suggests that chromatin remodelling machines have a modular nature and that ISWI has a central role in different chromatin remodelling reactions.

Date: 1997
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/41587 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:388:y:1997:i:6642:d:10.1038_41587

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/41587

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().