Solution structure of variant H2A.Z.1 nucleosome investigated by small-angle X-ray and neutron scatterings

Masaaki Sugiyama; Naoki Horikoshi; Yuya Suzuki; Hiroyuki Taguchi; Tomoya Kujirai; Rintaro Inoue; Yojiro Oba; Nobuhiro Sato; Anne Martel; Lionel Porcar; Hitoshi Kurumizaka

doi:10.1016/j.bbrep.2015.08.019

Solution structure of variant H2A.Z.1 nucleosome investigated by small-angle X-ray and neutron scatterings

Biochem Biophys Rep. 2015 Aug 28:4:28-32. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrep.2015.08.019. eCollection 2015 Dec.

Authors

Masaaki Sugiyama¹, Naoki Horikoshi^{2

3}, Yuya Suzuki², Hiroyuki Taguchi², Tomoya Kujirai², Rintaro Inoue¹, Yojiro Oba¹, Nobuhiro Sato¹, Anne Martel⁴, Lionel Porcar⁴, Hitoshi Kurumizaka^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Research Reactor Institute, Kyoto University, Osaka 590-0494, Japan.
² Laboratory of Structural Biology, Waseda University, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8480, Japan.
³ Research Institute for Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8480, Japan.
⁴ Institut Laue-Langevin, 6, rue Jules Horowitz, Grenoble 38042, France.

Abstract

Solution structures of nucleosomes containing a human histone variant, H2A.Z.1, were measured by small-angle X-ray and neutron scatterings (SAXS and SANS). SAXS revealed that the outer shape, reflecting the DNA shape, of the H2A.Z.1 nucleosome is almost the same as that of the canonical H2A nucleosome. In contrast, SANS employing a contrast variation technique revealed that the histone octamer of the H2A.Z.1 nucleosome is smaller than that of the canonical nucleosome. The DNA within the H2A.Z.1 nucleosome was more susceptible to micrococcal nuclease than that within the canonical nucleosome. These results suggested that the DNA is loosely wrapped around the histone core in the H2A.Z.1 nucleosome.

Keywords: CV-SANS, small-angle neutron scattering employing contrast variation technique; Contrast variation; H2A.Z.1; Nucleosome; SANS, small-angle neutron scattering; SAXS, small-angle X-ray scattering; Small-angle X-ray scattering; Small-angle neutron scattering; Stuhrmann plot.