Nucleosome Positioning on Yeast Plasmids Is Determined Only by the Internal Signal of DNA Sequence Occupied by the Nucleosome

G. I. Kiryanov^1*, L. V. Isaeva¹, L. N. Kinzurashvili², and M. G. Zacharova¹

¹Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow 119992, Russia; fax: (095) 931-7211; E-mail: gikmsu@mail.ru

²School of Biology, Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgian Republic

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received December 11, 2002; Revision received January 15, 2003

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The possible role of border factors in determining the nucleosome positioning on a DNA sequence was investigated. To this end a family of recombinant plasmids based on Gal10Cyc1 promoter and neomycin phosphotransferase gene NPTII were created. A DNA sequence adjoining the GalCyc promoter was varied in these plasmids. Three nearly equally represented nucleosome positions on the GalCyc promoter were found. In the basal plasmid an FRT sequence adjoins the GalCyc promoter at the right. It contains an internal signal of multiple positioning. Its replacement with different DNA sequences does not affect nucleosome positioning on the GalCyc promoter. The nucleosome positioning on the GalCyc promoter does not depend on nucleosome positioning (or its absence) on adjoining sequences. The same is true for nucleosome positioning on FRT sequence. It was found also that nucleosomes' positioning on the NPTII gene and their mutual disposition, namely the spacing between neighboring nucleosomes (linker length) are determined by the location of positioning signals only. Generally the nucleosome positioning in our experimental model is determined solely by internal DNA sequence occupied by nucleosome. On the other hand, the action of this internal positioning signal does not extend to neighboring DNA sequences.

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KEY WORDS: yeast plasmids, nucleosome positioning, border signals, neighbor sequence shifting

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