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We investigated genome folding across the eukaryotic tree of life. We find two types of three-dimensional (3D) genome architectures at the chromosome scale. Each type appears and disappears repeatedly during eukaryotic evolution. The type of genome architecture that an organism exhibits correlates with the absence of condensin II subunits. Moreover, condensin II depletion converts the architecture of the human genome to a state resembling that seen in organisms such as fungi or mosquitoes. In this state, centromeres cluster together at nucleoli, and heterochromatin domains merge. We propose a physical model in which lengthwise compaction of chromosomes by condensin II during mitosis determines chromosome-scale genome architecture, with effects that are retained during the subsequent interphase. This mechanism likely has been conserved since the last common ancestor of all eukaryotes.
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MCPH1 inhibits Condensin II during interphase by regulating its SMC2-Kleisin interface
Dramatic change in chromosomal DNA morphology between interphase and mitosis is a defining features of the eukaryotic cell cycle. Two types of enzymes, namely cohesin and condensin confer the topology of chromosomal DNA by extruding DNA loops. While condensin normally configures chromosomes exclusively during mitosis, cohesin does so during interphase. The processivity of cohesin’s loop extrusion during interphase is limited by a regulatory factor called WAPL, which induces cohesin to dissociate from chromosomes via a mechanism that requires dissociation of its kleisin from the neck of SMC3. We show here that a related mechanism may be responsible for blocking condensin II from acting during interphase. Cells derived from patients affected by microcephaly caused by mutations in the MCPH1 gene undergo premature chromosome condensation. We show that deletion of Mcph1 in mouse embryonic stem cells unleashes an activity of condensin II that triggers formation of compact chromosomes in G1 and G2 phases, accompanied by enhanced mixing of A and B chromatin compartments, and this occurs even in the absence of CDK1 activity. Crucially, inhibition of condensin II by MCPH1 depends on the binding of a short linear motif within MCPH1 to condensin II’s NCAPG2 subunit. MCPH1’s ability to block condensin II’s association with chromatin is abrogated by the fusion of SMC2 with NCAPH2, hence may work by a mechanism similar to cohesin. Remarkably, in the absence of both WAPL and MCPH1, cohesin and condensin II transform chromosomal DNAs of G2 cells into chromosomes with a solenoidal axis.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2019745
- PAR ID:
- 10320652
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- eLife
- Volume:
- 10
- ISSN:
- 2050-084X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.73348
