The Cross-Regulation Between Set1, Clr4, and Lsd1/2 in Schizosaccharomyces pombe [RNA-seq]
Eukaryotic chromatin is organized into either silenced heterochromatin or relaxed euchromatin regions, which controls the accessibility of transcriptional machinery and thus regulates gene expression. In fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Set1 is the sole H3K4 methyltransferase and is mainly enriched at the promoters of actively transcribed genes. In contrast, Clr4 methyltransferase initiates H3K9 methylation, which has long been regarded as a hallmark of heterochromatic silencing. Lsd1 and Lsd2 are two highly conserved H3K4 and H3K9 demethylases. As these histone-modifying enzymes perform critical roles in maintaining histone methylation patterns and, consequently, gene expression profiles, cross-regulations among these enzymes are parts of the complex regulatory networks. Thus, elucidating the mechanisms that govern their signaling and mutual regulations remains crucial. Here, we demonstrated that C-terminal truncation mutants, lsd1-?HMG and lsd2-?C, do not compromise the integrity of the Lsd1/2 complex but impair their chromatin-binding capacity at the promoter region of target genomic loci. We identified the protein-protein interactions between Lsd1/2 and Raf2 or Swd2, which are the subunits of the Clr4 complex (CLRC) and Set1-associated complexes (COMPASS), respectively. We showed that Clr4 and Set1 modulate the protein levels of Lsd1 and Lsd2 in opposite ways through the ubiquitin-proteasome-dependent pathway. During heat stress, the protein levels of Lsd1 and Lsd2 are upregulated in a Set1-dependent manner. The increase in protein levels is crucial for differential gene expression under stressed conditions. Together, our results support a cross-regulatory model by which Set1 and Clr4 methyltransferases control the protein levels of Lsd1/2 demethylases to shape the dynamic chromatin landscape. Overall design: RNA was isolated from S. pombe strains (each genotype represented by 2 independently derived biological replicates) using the Quick-RNA Miniprep Kit (Zymo Research, R1054) following manufacturer protocols. RNA was recovered in RNase-free water, frozen, and shipped to Novogene where Plant and Animal Eukaryotic Strand Specific mRNA (WOBI) sequencing was performed with standard bioinformatics service (HiSeq PE150; 150 bp paired-end with directional protocol; 9G raw data per sample).