GSE49526
Genome-wide maps of HMGD1 and H1-bound nucleosomes.
Chromatin architectural proteins interact with nucleosomes to modulate chromatin accessibility and higher-order chromatin structure. While these proteins are almost certainly important for gene regulation they have been studied far less than the core histone proteins. Here we describe the genomic distributions and functional roles of two chromatin architectural proteins: histone H1 and the high mobility group protein HMGD1, in Drosophila S2 cells. Using ChIP-seq, biochemical and gene specific approaches, we find that HMGD1 binds to highly accessible regulatory chromatin and active promoters. In contrast, H1 is primarily associated with heterochromatic regions marked with repressive histone marks. However, the ratio of HMGD1 to H1 is better correlated with chromatin accessibility, gene expression and nucleosome spacing variation than either protein alone suggesting a competitive mechanism between these proteins. Indeed, we show that HMGD1 and H1 compensate each other's absence by binding reciprocally to chromatin resulting in changes to nucleosome repeat length and distinct gene expression patterns. Collectively our data suggest that dynamic and mutually exclusive binding of H1 and HMGD1 to nucleosomes and linker sequences may control the fluid chromatin structure that is required for transcriptional regulation. This study thus provides a framework to further study the interplay between chromatin architectural proteins and epigenetics in gene regulation. Overall design: ChIP-seq of HMGD1 and Histone H1 bound nucleosomes as well as MNase-seq of total nucleosome in Drosophila S2 cells