Linker histone H1 drives heterochromatin condensation via phase separation in Arabidopsis

He S, Yu Y, Wang L, Zhang J, Bai Z, Li G, Li P, Feng X. 2024. Linker histone H1 drives heterochromatin condensation via phase separation in Arabidopsis. The Plant Cell. 36(5), 1829–1843.

Download (ext.)

Journal Article | Published | English

Scopus indexed
Author
He, Shengbo; Yu, YimingISTA; Wang, Liang; Zhang, Jingyi; Bai, Zhengyong; Li, Guohong; Li, Pilong; Feng, XiaoqiISTA
Department
Abstract
In the eukaryotic nucleus, heterochromatin forms highly condensed, visible foci known as heterochromatin foci (HF). These HF are enriched with linker histone H1, a key player in heterochromatin condensation and silencing. However, it is unknown how H1 aggregates HF and condenses heterochromatin. In this study, we established that H1 facilitates heterochromatin condensation by enhancing inter- and intrachromosomal interactions between and within heterochromatic regions of the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) genome. We demonstrated that H1 drives HF formation via phase separation, which requires its C-terminal intrinsically disordered region (C-IDR). A truncated H1 lacking the C-IDR fails to form foci or recover HF in the h1 mutant background, whereas C-IDR with a short stretch of the globular domain (18 out of 71 amino acids) is sufficient to rescue both defects. In addition, C-IDR is essential for H1's roles in regulating nucleosome repeat length and DNA methylation in Arabidopsis, indicating that phase separation capability is required for chromatin functions of H1. Our data suggest that bacterial H1-like proteins, which have been shown to condense DNA, are intrinsically disordered and capable of mediating phase separation. Therefore, we propose that phase separation mediated by H1 or H1-like proteins may represent an ancient mechanism for condensing chromatin and DNA.
Publishing Year
Date Published
2024-05-01
Journal Title
The Plant Cell
Acknowledgement
This work was funded by ISTA core support (Y.Y. and X.F.) and grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31871443 to L.W. and P.L.; 32100417 to L.W.). We thank the ISTA Imaging and Optics Facility for assistance with microscopy and the ISTA Scientific Computing Facility for high-performance computing resources.
Volume
36
Issue
5
Page
1829-1843
eISSN
IST-REx-ID

Cite this

He S, Yu Y, Wang L, et al. Linker histone H1 drives heterochromatin condensation via phase separation in Arabidopsis. The Plant Cell. 2024;36(5):1829-1843. doi:10.1093/plcell/koae034
He, S., Yu, Y., Wang, L., Zhang, J., Bai, Z., Li, G., … Feng, X. (2024). Linker histone H1 drives heterochromatin condensation via phase separation in Arabidopsis. The Plant Cell. Oxford Academic. https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koae034
He, Shengbo, Yiming Yu, Liang Wang, Jingyi Zhang, Zhengyong Bai, Guohong Li, Pilong Li, and Xiaoqi Feng. “Linker Histone H1 Drives Heterochromatin Condensation via Phase Separation in Arabidopsis.” The Plant Cell. Oxford Academic, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koae034.
S. He et al., “Linker histone H1 drives heterochromatin condensation via phase separation in Arabidopsis,” The Plant Cell, vol. 36, no. 5. Oxford Academic, pp. 1829–1843, 2024.
He S, Yu Y, Wang L, Zhang J, Bai Z, Li G, Li P, Feng X. 2024. Linker histone H1 drives heterochromatin condensation via phase separation in Arabidopsis. The Plant Cell. 36(5), 1829–1843.
He, Shengbo, et al. “Linker Histone H1 Drives Heterochromatin Condensation via Phase Separation in Arabidopsis.” The Plant Cell, vol. 36, no. 5, Oxford Academic, 2024, pp. 1829–43, doi:10.1093/plcell/koae034.
All files available under the following license(s):
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0):

Link(s) to Main File(s)
Access Level
OA Open Access

Export

Marked Publications

Open Data ISTA Research Explorer

Search this title in

Google Scholar