title: Yeti, an essential Drosophila melanogaster gene, encodes a protein required for chromatin organization.
abstract: The evolutionarily conserved family of Bucentaur (BCNT) proteins exhibits a widespread distribution in animal and plants, yet its biological role remains largely unknown. Using Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism, we investigated the in vivo role of the Drosophila BCNT member called YETI. We report that loss of YETI causes lethality before pupation and defects in higher-order chromatin organization, as evidenced by severe impairment in the association of histone H2A.V, nucleosomal histones and epigenetic marks with polytene chromosomes. We also find that YETI binds to polytene chromosomes through its conserved BCNT domain and interacts with the histone variant H2A.V, HP1a and Domino-A (DOM-A), the ATPase subunit of the DOM/Tip60 chromatin remodeling complex. Furthermore, we identify YETI as a downstream target of the Drosophila DOM-A. On the basis of these results, we propose that YETI interacts with H2A.V-exchanging machinery, as a chaperone or as a new subunit of the DOM/Tip60 remodeling complex, and acts to regulate the accumulation of H2A.V at chromatin sites. Overall, our findings suggest an unanticipated role of YETI protein in chromatin organization and provide, for the first time, mechanistic clues on how BCNT proteins control development in multicellular organisms.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie 'Charles Darwin', Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Roma, Italy Istituto Pasteur Fondazione Cenci-Bolognetti, Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Messina
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie 'Charles Darwin', Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Roma, Italy Istituto Pasteur Fondazione Cenci-Bolognetti, Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Elisabetta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Damia
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie 'Charles Darwin', Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fanti
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie 'Charles Darwin', Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Roma, Italy Istituto Pasteur Fondazione Cenci-Bolognetti, Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria Teresa
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Atterrato
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie 'Charles Darwin', Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Roma, Italy Istituto Pasteur Fondazione Cenci-Bolognetti, Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Emanuele
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Celauro
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie 'Charles Darwin', Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Roma, Italy Istituto Pasteur Fondazione Cenci-Bolognetti, Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca Romana
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Mariotti
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie 'Charles Darwin', Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Roma, Italy Istituto Pasteur Fondazione Cenci-Bolognetti, Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria Carmela
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Accardo
authors.affiliation: Insitute of Genetics, D-06120 Halle, Germany.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Walther
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie 'Charles Darwin', Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Fiammetta
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vernì
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie 'Charles Darwin', Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Roma, Italy Istituto Pasteur Fondazione Cenci-Bolognetti, Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Daria
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Picchioni
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Bari, 70121 Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Moschetti
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Bari, 70121 Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Ruggiero
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Caizzi
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie 'Charles Darwin', Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Lucia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Piacentini
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie 'Charles Darwin', Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Roma, Italy Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine and Center for Biotechnology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cenci
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia, Università Federico II, 80134 Napoli, Italy.
authors.forename: Ennio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Giordano
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie 'Charles Darwin', Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Roma, Italy Istituto Pasteur Fondazione Cenci-Bolognetti, Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Roma, Italy patrizio.dimitri@uniroma1.it.
authors.forename: Patrizio
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dimitri
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D042002:Chromatin Assembly and Disassembly / Q000235:genetics; D017124:Conserved Sequence / Q000235:genetics; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000502:physiology*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006657:Histones / Q000378:metabolism; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D010750:Phosphoproteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D059007:Polytene Chromosomes / Q000378:metabolism*; D011485:Protein Binding; D015398:Signal Transduction; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: C104422:CFDP1 protein, human; D002352:Carrier Proteins; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D006657:Histones; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D010750:Phosphoproteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; C492567:Yeti protein, Drosophila; C499600:dom protein, Drosophila
keywords: Chromatin remodeling; Chromosome; Drosophila; Yeti