Recruitment and allosteric stimulation of a histone deubiquitinating enzyme during heterochromatin assembly
Heterochromatin formation in budding yeast is regulated by the silent information regulator (SIR) complex. The SIR complex comprises the NAD dependent deacetylase Sir2, the scaffolding protein Sir4, and the nucleosome-binding protein Sir3. Transcriptionally active regions present a challenge to SIR complex-mediated de novo heterochromatic silencing due to the presence of antagonistic histone PTMs, including acetylation and methylation. Methylation of histone H3K4 and H3K79 are dependent on mono-ubiquitination of histone H2B (H2B-Ub). The SIR complex cannot erase H2B-Ub or histone methylation on its own. The deubiquitinase (DUB) Ubp10 is thought to promote heterochromatic silencing by maintaining low H2B-Ub at sub-telomeres. Here, we biochemically characterize the interactions between Ubp10 and the SIR complex machinery. We demonstrate that a direct interaction between Ubp10 and the Sir2/4 sub-complex facilitates Ubp10 recruitment to chromatin via a co-assembly mechanism. Using hydrolyzable H2B-Ub analogs, we show that Ubp10 activity is lower on nucleosomes compared to H2B-Ub in solution. We find that Sir2/4 stimulates Ubp10 DUB activity on nucleosomes, likely through a combination of targeting and allosteric regulation. This coupling mechanism between the silencing machinery and its DUB partner allows erasure of active PTMs and the de novo transition of a transcriptionally active DNA region to a silent chromatin state.
Heterochromatin formation in budding yeast is regulated by the silent information regulator (SIR) complex. The SIR complex comprises the NAD dependent deacetylase Sir2, the scaffolding protein…