Stress-Specific Role of Fission Yeast Gcn5 Histone Acetyltransferase in Programming a Subset of Stress Response Genes

Abstract

ABSTRACT Gcn5 is a coactivator protein that contributes to gene activation by acetylating specific lysine residues within the N termini of histone proteins. Gcn5 has been intensively studied in the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae , but the features of genes that determine whether they require Gcn5 during activation have not been conclusively clarified. To allow comparison with S. cerevisiae , we have studied the genome-wide role of Gcn5 in the distantly related fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe . We show that Gcn5 is specifically required for adaptation to KCl- and CaCl 2 -mediated stress in S. pombe . We have characterized the genome-wide gene expression responses to KCl stress and show that Gcn5 is involved in the regulation of a subset of stress response genes. Gcn5 is most clearly associated with KCl-induced genes, but there is no correlation between Gcn5 dependence and the extent of their induction. Instead, Gcn5-dependent KCl-induced genes are specifically enriched in four different DNA motifs. The Gcn5-dependent KCl-induced genes are also associated with biological process gene ontology terms such as carbohydrate metabolism, glycolysis, and nicotinamide metabolism that together constitute a subset of the ontology parameters associated with KCl-induced genes.