Cargando…

Candida albicans repetitive elements display epigenetic diversity and plasticity

Transcriptionally silent heterochromatin is associated with repetitive DNA. It is poorly understood whether and how heterochromatin differs between different organisms and whether its structure can be remodelled in response to environmental signals. Here, we address this question by analysing the ch...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Freire-Benéitez, Verónica, Price, R. Jordan, Tarrant, Daniel, Berman, Judith, Buscaino, Alessia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4789652/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26971880
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep22989
_version_ 1782420896899661824
author Freire-Benéitez, Verónica
Price, R. Jordan
Tarrant, Daniel
Berman, Judith
Buscaino, Alessia
author_facet Freire-Benéitez, Verónica
Price, R. Jordan
Tarrant, Daniel
Berman, Judith
Buscaino, Alessia
author_sort Freire-Benéitez, Verónica
collection PubMed
description Transcriptionally silent heterochromatin is associated with repetitive DNA. It is poorly understood whether and how heterochromatin differs between different organisms and whether its structure can be remodelled in response to environmental signals. Here, we address this question by analysing the chromatin state associated with DNA repeats in the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans. Our analyses indicate that, contrary to model systems, each type of repetitive element is assembled into a distinct chromatin state. Classical Sir2-dependent hypoacetylated and hypomethylated chromatin is associated with the rDNA locus while telomeric regions are assembled into a weak heterochromatin that is only mildly hypoacetylated and hypomethylated. Major Repeat Sequences, a class of tandem repeats, are assembled into an intermediate chromatin state bearing features of both euchromatin and heterochromatin. Marker gene silencing assays and genome-wide RNA sequencing reveals that C. albicans heterochromatin represses expression of repeat-associated coding and non-coding RNAs. We find that telomeric heterochromatin is dynamic and remodelled upon an environmental change. Weak heterochromatin is associated with telomeres at 30 °C, while robust heterochromatin is assembled over these regions at 39 °C, a temperature mimicking moderate fever in the host. Thus in C. albicans, differential chromatin states controls gene expression and epigenetic plasticity is linked to adaptation.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4789652
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2016
publisher Nature Publishing Group
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-47896522016-03-16 Candida albicans repetitive elements display epigenetic diversity and plasticity Freire-Benéitez, Verónica Price, R. Jordan Tarrant, Daniel Berman, Judith Buscaino, Alessia Sci Rep Article Transcriptionally silent heterochromatin is associated with repetitive DNA. It is poorly understood whether and how heterochromatin differs between different organisms and whether its structure can be remodelled in response to environmental signals. Here, we address this question by analysing the chromatin state associated with DNA repeats in the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans. Our analyses indicate that, contrary to model systems, each type of repetitive element is assembled into a distinct chromatin state. Classical Sir2-dependent hypoacetylated and hypomethylated chromatin is associated with the rDNA locus while telomeric regions are assembled into a weak heterochromatin that is only mildly hypoacetylated and hypomethylated. Major Repeat Sequences, a class of tandem repeats, are assembled into an intermediate chromatin state bearing features of both euchromatin and heterochromatin. Marker gene silencing assays and genome-wide RNA sequencing reveals that C. albicans heterochromatin represses expression of repeat-associated coding and non-coding RNAs. We find that telomeric heterochromatin is dynamic and remodelled upon an environmental change. Weak heterochromatin is associated with telomeres at 30 °C, while robust heterochromatin is assembled over these regions at 39 °C, a temperature mimicking moderate fever in the host. Thus in C. albicans, differential chromatin states controls gene expression and epigenetic plasticity is linked to adaptation. Nature Publishing Group 2016-03-14 /pmc/articles/PMC4789652/ /pubmed/26971880 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep22989 Text en Copyright © 2016, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Freire-Benéitez, Verónica
Price, R. Jordan
Tarrant, Daniel
Berman, Judith
Buscaino, Alessia
Candida albicans repetitive elements display epigenetic diversity and plasticity
title Candida albicans repetitive elements display epigenetic diversity and plasticity
title_full Candida albicans repetitive elements display epigenetic diversity and plasticity
title_fullStr Candida albicans repetitive elements display epigenetic diversity and plasticity
title_full_unstemmed Candida albicans repetitive elements display epigenetic diversity and plasticity
title_short Candida albicans repetitive elements display epigenetic diversity and plasticity
title_sort candida albicans repetitive elements display epigenetic diversity and plasticity
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4789652/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26971880
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep22989
work_keys_str_mv AT freirebeneitezveronica candidaalbicansrepetitiveelementsdisplayepigeneticdiversityandplasticity
AT pricerjordan candidaalbicansrepetitiveelementsdisplayepigeneticdiversityandplasticity
AT tarrantdaniel candidaalbicansrepetitiveelementsdisplayepigeneticdiversityandplasticity
AT bermanjudith candidaalbicansrepetitiveelementsdisplayepigeneticdiversityandplasticity
AT buscainoalessia candidaalbicansrepetitiveelementsdisplayepigeneticdiversityandplasticity