ATP hydrolysis coordinates the activities of two motors in a dimeric chromatin remodeling enzyme

Published: Nov. 18, 2020, 10:02 a.m.

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2020.11.17.387662v1?rss=1 Authors: Johnson, S. L., Narlikar, G. Abstract: ATP-dependent chromatin remodelers are essential enzymes that restructure eukaryotic genomes to enable all DNA-based processes. The diversity and complexity of these processes are matched by the complexity of the enzymes that carry them out, making remodelers a challenging class of molecular motors to study by conventional methods. Here we use a single molecule biophysical assay to overcome some of these challenges, enabling a detailed mechanistic dissection of a paradigmatic remodeler reaction, that of sliding a nucleosome towards the longer DNA linker. We focus on how two motors of a dimeric remodeler coordinate to accomplish such directional sliding. We find that ATP hydrolysis by both motors promotes coordination, suggesting a role for ATP in resolving the competition for directional commitment. Furthermore, we show an artificially constitutive dimer is no more or less coordinated, but is more processive, suggesting a cell could modulate a remodeler's oligomeric state to modulate local chromatin dynamics. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info