HISTONE H4 ACETYLATION DISTINGUISHES CODING REGIONS OF THE HUMAN GENOME FROM HETEROCHROMATIN IN A DIFFERENTIATION-DEPENDENT BUT TRANSCRIPTION-INDEPENDENT MANNER
Lp. Oneill et Bm. Turner, HISTONE H4 ACETYLATION DISTINGUISHES CODING REGIONS OF THE HUMAN GENOME FROM HETEROCHROMATIN IN A DIFFERENTIATION-DEPENDENT BUT TRANSCRIPTION-INDEPENDENT MANNER, EMBO journal, 14(16), 1995, pp. 3946-3957
By immunoprecipitation of chromatin fragments from cultured human HL-6
0 cells with antibodies specific for H4 acetylated at specific lysine
residues we have defined the level of H4 acetylation within transcript
ionally active and inactive regions of the genome, H4 within or adjace
nt to coding regions had a similar level of overall acetylation to inp
ut (bulk) chromatin and a similar pattern of acetylation of individual
lysines (i.e. 16 > 8, 12 > 5). The acetylation of H4 in coding (and a
djacent) regions was not correlated with transcriptional activity and
did not vary with position along the constitutively active c-myc gene.
Turnover of H4 acetates was not selectively increased in transcriptio
nally active chromatin, H4 associated with centric heterochromatin or
with the CCCTAA repeat of telomeric heterochromatin was infrequently a
cetylated (<1%) at all lysines. We conclude that nucleosomes containin
g acetylated H4 are scattered infrequently and possibly randomly throu
gh coding and adjacent regions and are essentially absent from heteroc
hromatin. Induction of differentiation of HL-60 cells by exposure to d
imethylsulfoxide or 12-o-tetradecanoylphorbol W-acetate (TPA) did not
alter the level of H4 acetylation within either the c-myc or c-fos gen
es or other coding regions, but did induce a transient increase in H4
acetylation within centric heterochromatin.