title: Highly conserved ENY2/Sus1 protein binds to Drosophila CTCF and is required for barrier activity.
abstract: Chromatin insulators affect interactions between promoters and enhancers/silencers and function as barriers for the spreading of repressive chromatin. Drosophila insulator protein dCTCF marks active promoters and boundaries of many histone H3K27 trimethylation domains associated with repressed chromatin. In particular, dCTCF binds to such boundaries between the parasegment-specific regulatory domains of the Bithorax complex. Here we demonstrate that the evolutionarily conserved protein ENY2 is recruited to the zinc-finger domain of dCTCF and is required for the barrier activity of dCTCF-dependent insulators in transgenic lines. Inactivation of ENY2 by RNAi in BG3 cells leads to the spreading of H3K27 trimethylation and Pc protein at several dCTCF boundaries. The results suggest that evolutionarily conserved ENY2 is responsible for barrier activity mediated by the dCTCF protein.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Gene Expression Regulation in Development; Institute of Gene Biology; Russian Academy of Sciences; Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Oksana
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Maksimenko
authors.affiliation: Group of Transcriptional Regulation; Institute of Gene Biology; Russian Academy of Sciences; Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kyrchanova
authors.affiliation: Group of Transcriptional Regulation; Institute of Gene Biology; Russian Academy of Sciences; Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Artem
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bonchuk
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Gene Expression Regulation in Development; Institute of Gene Biology; Russian Academy of Sciences; Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Viacheslav
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Stakhov
authors.affiliation: Department of the Control of Genetic Processes; Institute of Gene Biology; Russian Academy of Sciences; Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Parshikov
authors.affiliation: Department of the Control of Genetic Processes; Institute of Gene Biology; Russian Academy of Sciences; Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Pavel
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Georgiev
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D000076246:CCCTC-Binding Factor; D002460:Cell Line; D002843:Chromatin / Q000378:metabolism*; D004330:Drosophila / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006657:Histones / Q000378:metabolism; D008745:Methylation; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000076246:CCCTC-Binding Factor; C524946:CTCF protein, Drosophila; D002843:Chromatin; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D006657:Histones; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; C423782:e(y)2 protein, Drosophila
keywords: bithorax; chromatin boundaries; chromatin insulator; polycomb silencing; transcription regulation