Crystal Structure of the HP1-EMSY Complex Reveals an Unusual Mode of HP1 Binding
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CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Elsevier - Publisher Connector Structure 14, 703–712, April 2006 ª2006 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved DOI 10.1016/j.str.2006.01.007 Crystal Structure of the HP1-EMSY Complex Reveals an Unusual Mode of HP1 Binding Ying Huang,1 Michael P. Myers,1 and Rui-Ming Xu1,* main (CSD) at the C terminus (Aasland and Stewart, 1 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory 1995; Eissenberg, 2001; Paro and Hogness, 1991). The Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724 chromo domain of HP1 specifically recognizes the N-ter- minal tail of histone H3 methylated at lysine-9, which pro- vides a structural basis in support of the ‘‘histone code’’ Summary hypothesis (Bannister et al., 2001; Jacobs and Khorasa- nizadeh, 2002; Jenuwein and Allis, 2001; Lachner et al., Heterochromatin protein-1 (HP1) plays an essential 2001; Nielsen et al., 2002). The CSD is responsible for role in both the assembly of higher-order chromatin HP1 homodimerization and interaction with a number structure and epigenetic inheritance. The C-terminal of nonhistone nuclear proteins (Brasher et al., 2000; chromo shadow domain (CSD) of HP1 is responsible Cowieson et al., 2000; Li et al., 2002; Ye et al., 1997). It for homodimerization and interaction with a number has been demonstrated that the HP1 CSD and the hinge of chromatin-associated nonhistone proteins, includ- region are important for targeting HP1 proteins to spe- ing EMSY, which is a BRCA2-interacting protein that cific genomic loci (Smothers and Henikoff, 2001). has been implicated in the development of breast Various proteins important for chromatin structure and ovarian cancer. We have determined the crystal and gene transcription have been found to interact structure of the HP1b CSD in complex with the N-termi- with the HP1 CSD (Lechner et al., 2005; Li et al., 2002). nal domain of EMSY at 1.8 A˚ resolution. Surprisingly, They include the large subunit of chromatin assembly the structure reveals that EMSY is bound by two HP1 factor-1 (CAF-1) (Brasher et al., 2000; Lechner et al., CSD homodimers, and the binding sequences differ 2000; Murzina et al., 1999) and components of the cellu- from the consensus HP1 binding motif PXVXL. This lar transcriptional machinery (Vassallo and Tanese, structural information expands our understanding of 2002). In addition, the largest subunit of the origin recog- HP1 binding specificity and provides insights into in- nition complex (Orc1) interacts with full-length HP1 teractions between HP1 homodimers that are likely rather than with individual domains (Lidonnici et al., to be important for heterochromatin formation. 2004; Pak et al., 1997). In the budding yeast Saccharo- myces cerevisiae, the interaction between the silencer Introduction bound Orc1 with silencing information regulator-1 (Sir1) is important for the establishment of the silenced chro- Heterochromatin protein-1 (HP1) is a conserved chro- matin domain at the cryptic mating-type loci (Gardner matin-associated protein important for both the assem- et al., 1999; Triolo and Sternglanz, 1996; Zhang et al., bly of higher-order chromatin structure and regulation of 2002). In higher eukaryotes, the interaction between gene transcription (Eissenberg and Elgin, 2000; Maison Orc1 and HP1 is likely to play an analogous role in the and Almouzni, 2004). HP1 was first discovered in Dro- formation of heterochromatin (Shareef et al., 2003). sophila, and it plays essential roles in position effect var- A recent addition to the list of HP1-interacting pro- iegation, which is a phenomenon of epigenetic gene si- teins is EMSY, which was identified as a protein that in- lencing through heterochromatin formation (Eissenberg teracts with the exon 3-encoded transcriptional activa- et al., 1990; James et al., 1989; Wustmann et al., 1989). tion domain of breast cancer susceptibility gene 2 HP1 achieves its silencing function by directly binding (BRCA2) (Hughes-Davies et al., 2003). EMSY has been to chromatin and spreading across the entire silenced implicated in BRCA2-associated sporadic breast and chromosomal region (Maison and Almouzni, 2004). ovarian cancer, but an understanding of its cellular func- Similar mechanisms of epigenetic control of gene ex- tions is lacking. EMSY is a large protein containing an pression are employed in organisms from yeasts to hu- N-terminal domain (ENT) found in many plant proteins, mans and in diverse biological processes ranging from and the ENT domain is followed by an amino acid se- mating-type switching to X chromosome inactivation quence involved in binding HP1 and BS69, the latter of (Grewal and Elgin, 2002; Jaenisch and Bird, 2003; Nusi- which was initially isolated as an adenoviral E1A binding now and Panning, 2005; Rusche et al., 2003). HP1 and protein that recognizes the PXLXP sequence motif (An- localized heterochromatic foci have also been impli- sieau and Leutz, 2002; Hateboer et al., 1995; Hughes- cated in cellular senescence and cancer development Davies et al., 2003). (Narita et al., 2003; Nielsen et al., 2001). The EMSY sequence implicated in HP1 binding, In Drosophila and mammals, there are three HP1 ho- RLVPL, deviates from the consensus HP1 binding se- mologs: HP1a, HP1b, and HP1g. The three proteins are quence PXVXL (positions 22 to +2) at the 22 position highly related, yet they are distributed in distinct chro- (Smothers and Henikoff, 2000; Thiru et al., 2004). In the mosomal regions. HP1a and HP1b are predominantly structure of the HP1 CSD-CAF-1 peptide complex, the associated with heterochromatin, while HP1g is mostly proline at position 22 occupies a shallow hydrophobic euchromatic (Maison and Almouzni, 2004). All HP1 pro- pocket (Thiru et al., 2004) that an arginine would not be teins have a highly conserved chromo domain at the able to bind. To determine the exact mode of interaction ˚ N terminus and a well-conserved chromo shadow do- between the HP1 CSD and EMSY, we solved a 1.8 A res- olution cocrystal structure of the HP1b CSD in complex with an N-terminal EMSY fragment encompassing the *Correspondence: [email protected] ENT domain and the HP1/BS69 binding sites (EMSY-N, Structure 704 Figure 1. Structure Determination (A) A section of the MAD-phased electron density map surrounding the ENT-proximal HP1 binding site. The 2.3 A˚ map is shown in a filled chicken- wire representation and is contoured at the 1.0s level. The refined model of the EMSY-HP1 CSD complex (stick model) is superimposed onto the map. EMSY, HP1 CSD-A1, and HP1 CSD-A2 molecules are shown with carbon bonds colored yellow, magenta, and red, respectively. (B) The overall structure of the EMSY-HP1 CSD complex shown in a ribbon representation. One asymmetric unit contains half of the EMSY ho- modimer, and the other half (shaded) is related by a 2-fold symmetry. EMSY is colored yellow, the ENT-proximal CSD dimer (CSD-A) is shown in magenta (CSD-A1) and red (CSD-A2), and the ENT-distal dimer (CSD-B) is shown in green (CSD-B1) and cyan (CSD-B2). (C) Superposition of the backbones of CSD-A (red), CSD-B (green), and the HP1 CSD dimer of the HP1-CAF-1 complex (white). aa 9–139). The structure reveals an unexpected binding the HP1 binding sites (aa 98–124). The structure of the mode for HP1 CSD to EMSY, which broadens our under- ENT domain has been previously described (Chavali standing of HP1 binding specificity, and the structural et al., 2005). It consists mainly of five a helices: a1 and information should be useful for identifying new HP1 a2 are antiparallel to each other, a3 and a5 are packed binding proteins. on the same side of a1 and a2, and a4 contacts the C-terminal end of a1(Figure 1B). As noted in the work Results of Chavali et al. (2005), the ENT domain forms a homo- dimer, and the two ENT monomers are related by a Overall Structure 2-fold crystallographic symmetry in our structure (Fig- The structure was solved by the method of multiwave- ure 1B). Helices a1, a2, and a4 are engaged in extensive length anomalous dispersion (MAD) by using data col- dimeric interactions. The dimeric interface buries a total lected from a crystal with seleno-methionine (SeMet)- of w2976 A˚ 2 of pairwise solvent-accessible area, calcu- substituted HP1 CSD. The high-quality MAD-phased lated with a probe radius of 1.4 A˚ . The C-terminal exten- electron density allows for unambiguous tracing of sion of EMSY-N, which harbors the HP1 binding sites, main chains and assignment of amino acids side chains projects away from the dimeric interface (Figure 1B). (Figure 1A). The modeled EMSY-N and the HP1 CSD The HP1 CSD has a mixed a/b structure (Brasher et al., complex contains two HP1 CSD homodimers (aa 109– 2000; Cowieson et al., 2000): three b strands (b1–b3) at 175) bound to one EMSY-N (aa 9–124) in the asymmetric the N-terminal end form an antiparallel sheet, which is unit (Figure 1B). The 1.8 A˚ refined model has excellent stabilized by the packing of two approximately perpen- stereochemical quality: 90.3% of the residues are in dicularly oriented a helices (aA and aB) on one side of the most-favored region of the Ramachandran plot, the b sheet. The two helices are responsible for homo- and none are in the disallowed region, assessed by the dimer formation, and they interact with the same helices PROCHECK program (Laskowski et al., 1993). Detailed of another CSD monomer (Figure 1B). The two HP1 CSD statistics of structure determination and refinement are homodimers in the structure, denoted CSD-A and CSD- shown in Table 1. B, have very similar monomeric structures.