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. 1997 Oct;17(10):5843–5855. doi: 10.1128/mcb.17.10.5843

Alleviation of histone H1-mediated transcriptional repression and chromatin compaction by the acidic activation region in chromosomal protein HMG-14.

H F Ding 1, M Bustin 1, U Hansen 1
PMCID: PMC232432  PMID: 9315642

Abstract

Histone H1 promotes the generation of a condensed, transcriptionally inactive, higher-order chromatin structure. Consequently, histone H1 activity must be antagonized in order to convert chromatin to a transcriptionally competent, more extended structure. Using simian virus 40 minichromosomes as a model system, we now demonstrate that the nonhistone chromosomal protein HMG-14, which is known to preferentially associate with active chromatin, completely alleviates histone H1-mediated inhibition of transcription by RNA polymerase II. HMG-14 also partially disrupts histone H1-dependent compaction of chromatin. Both the transcriptional enhancement and chromatin-unfolding activities of HMG-14 are mediated through its acidic, C-terminal region. Strikingly, transcriptional and structural activities of HMG-14 are maintained upon replacement of the C-terminal fragment by acidic regions from either GAL4 or HMG-2. These data support the model that the acidic C terminus of HMG-14 is involved in unfolding higher-order chromatin structure to facilitate transcriptional activation of mammalian genes.

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Selected References

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