Drosophila NURF-55, a WD repeat protein involved in histone metabolism
- Laboratory of Molecular Cell Biology, National Cancer Institute, Building 37, Room 5E-26, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-4255
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Communicated by Gary Felsenfeld, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (received for review June 25, 1997)
Abstract
The Drosophila nucleosome remodeling factor (NURF) is a protein complex of four distinct subunits that assists transcription factor-mediated chromatin remodeling. One NURF subunit, ISWI, is related to the transcriptional regulators Drosophila brahma and yeast SWI2/SNF2. We have determined peptide sequences and isolated cDNA clones for a second NURF component (the 55-kDa subunit). Immunological studies show that p55 is an integral subunit of NURF and is generally associated with polytene chromosomes. The predicted sequence of p55 reveals a WD repeat protein that is identical with the 55-kDa subunit of the Drosophila chromatin assembly factor (CAF-1). Given that WD repeat proteins related to p55 are associated with histone deacetylase and histone acetyltransferase, our findings suggest that p55 and its homologs may function as a common platform for the assembly of protein complexes involved in chromatin metabolism.
Footnotes
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↵ * To whom reprint requests should be addressed.e-mail.carlwu{at}helix.nih.gov.
- ABBREVIATIONS:
- NURF,
- Drosophila nucleosome remodeling factor;
- CAF,
- chromatin assembly factor;
- HAT,
- histone acetyltransferase;
- HD,
- histone deacetylase
