1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
  2. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
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Human cytomegalovirus IE1 protein alters the higher-order chromatin structure by targeting the acidic patch of the nucleosome

  1. Qianglin Fang
  2. Ping Chen
  3. Mingzhu Wang
  4. Junnan Fang
  5. Na Yang
  6. Guohong Li
  7. Rui-Ming Xu  Is a corresponding author
  1. Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
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Cite this article as: eLife 2016;5:e11911 doi: 10.7554/eLife.11911

Abstract

Human cytomegalovirus (hCMV) immediate early 1 (IE1) protein associates with condensed chromatin of the host cell during mitosis. We have determined the structure of the chromatin-tethering domain (CTD) of IE1 bound to the nucleosome core particle, and discovered that IE1-CTD specifically interacts with the H2A-H2B acidic patch and impairs the compaction of higher-order chromatin structure. Our results suggest that IE1 loosens up the folding of host chromatin during hCMV infections.

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Author details

  1. Qianglin Fang

    National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  2. Ping Chen

    National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  3. Mingzhu Wang

    National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  4. Junnan Fang

    National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  5. Na Yang

    National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  6. Guohong Li

    National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  7. Rui-Ming Xu

    National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
    For correspondence
    rmxu@sun5.ibp.ac.cn
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Patrick Cramer, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Germany

Publication history

  1. Received: September 26, 2015
  2. Accepted: January 21, 2016
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: January 26, 2016 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: February 11, 2016 (version 2)
  5. Version of Record updated: March 14, 2016 (version 3)

Copyright

© 2016, Fang et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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