Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Dipartimento di Biologia, Via Cinthia-80126-Naples, Italy-
Abstract: HTL1, a small gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, encodes a 78-aminoacid peptide that influences the performance of a wide range of cellular processes [Lanzuolo, C-, Ederle, S-, Pollice, A-, Russo, F-, Storlazzi, A-, Pulitzer, J-F-, 2001- The HTL1 gene,YCR020W-b of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is necessary for growth at 37 degrees C, and for the conservation of chromosome stability and fertility- Yeast, 18, 1317-1330]- Genetic interactions and co-immunoprecipitation experiments indicate a role for Htl1p in functions controlled by RSC, a multiprotein, ATP-dependent, chromatin-remodeling complex [Lu, Y-M-, Lin, Y-R-, Tsai, A-, Hsao, Y-S-, Li, C-C-, Cheng, M-Y-, 2003- Dissecting the pet18 mutation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae- HTL1 encodes a 7-kDa polypeptide that interacts with components of the RSC complex- Mol- Genet- Genomics-, 269, 321-330] [Romeo, M-J-, Angus-Hill, M-L-, Sobering, A-K-, Kamada, Y-, Cairns, B-R-, Levin, D-E-, 2002- HTL1 encodes a novel factor that interacts with the Rsc chromatin-remodeling complex in Saccharomyces cerevisiae- Mol- Cell- Biol-, 22, 8165-8174]- Htl1p and RSC components, share the property of associating with TBP a component of general multiprotein transcription factor TFIID [Sanders, S-L-, Jennings, J-, Canutescu, A-, Link, A-J-, Weil, P-A-, 2002- Proteomics of the eukaryotic transcription machinery- identification of proteins associated with components of yeast TFIID by multidimensional mass spectrometry- Mol- Cell- Biol- 22, 4723-4738]- We confirm, by integrating genetic and biochemical experiments, that Htl1p binding to the RSC complex is direct and physiologically relevant and show that it is mediated by Rsc8p, a core component of the RSC complex- Deletion of HTL1, like depletion of RSC core subunits [Moreira, J-M-, Holmberg, S-, 1999- Transcriptional repression of the yeast CHA1 gene requires the chromatin-remodeling complex Rsc- Embo J-, 18, 2836-2844], leads to constitutive transcription of the CHA1 locus- This transcriptional phenotype exhibits variable penetrance- Deletion of HTL1 also leads to hydroxyurea hypersensitivity at 30 degrees C, suggesting a defect in replication-repair- This defect leads, during cell growth, to selection of mutations at the SIR3 locus that suppress hydroxyurea sensitivity-