The N-terminus and Tudor domains of Sgf29 are important for its heterochromatin boundary formation function.

Eukaryotic chromosomes are organized into heterochromatin and euchromatin domains. Heterochromatin domains are transcriptionally repressed and prevented from spreading into neighbouring genes by chromatin boundaries. Previously, we identified 55 boundary-related genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In this study, we describe the characterization of one of these boundary genes, named SGF29, which was previously reported as a component of the SAGA, SLIK, ADA and HAT-A2 complex. A domain analysis of Sgf29 identified two minimal regions that can function as individual boundaries. The N-terminal minimal region comprising amino acids 1-12, which has not been defined as a functional domain, showed stronger boundary formation ability than the C-terminal minimal region comprising amino acids 110-255, which contains Tudor domains. Together with Ada2, Ada3 and Sgf29, which are all components of SAGA, Gcn5 acetylates multiple lysine residues on nucleosomal histone H3, which is associated with an open chromatin structure. However, the results presented in this study suggest that the boundary formation ability of the Sgf29 minimal regions is independent of Gcn5. An in vivo analysis also revealed that Sgf29 and Gcn5 perform distinct functions at native telomere boundary regions on the chromosome.

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