Clothing up DNA for all seasons: Histone chaperones and nucleosome assembly pathways

Abstract 

In eukaryotes, the packaging of DNA into chromatin is essential for cell viability. Several important DNA metabolic events require the transient disruption of chromatin structure, but cells have evolved a number of elaborate pathways that operate throughout the cell cycle to prevent the deleterious effects of chromatin erosion. In this review, we describe a number of distinct nucleosome assembly pathways that function during DNA replication, transcription, cellular senescence and early embryogenesis. In addition, we illustrate some of the physiological consequences associated with defects in nucleosome assembly pathways.

Keywords: Histone chaperone, Chromatin assembly, Nucleosome assembly

Abbreviations: ASF1, anti-silencing function 1, BrdU, bromodeoxyuridine, CAF-1, chromatin assembly factor-1, ChIP, chromatin immunoprecipitation, DH, deoxyribonuclease I-hypersensitive sites, dNTP, deoxyribonucleoside triphosphate, DSBs, DNA double-strand breaks, FACT, facilitates chromatin transcription, HAT, histone acetyltransferase, HU, hydroxyurea, MCM, minichromosome maintenance, NFRs, nucleosome-free regions, NLS, nuclear localisation signal, PCNA, proliferating cell nuclear antigen, PTMs, post-translational modifications, RFC, replication factor C, RPA, replication protein A, SAHF, senescence-associated heterochromatic foci, SSBs, DNA single-strand breaks