The yeast rDNA locus: A model system to study DNA repair in chromatin

Most of the studies on the effect of chromatin structure and chromatin remodeling on DNA repair are based on in vitro reconstituted assays. In such experiments individual nucleosomes are either released by nuclease digestion of native chromatin fibers or are assembled from purified histones. Though reconstituted assays are valid approaches to follow NER in chromatin they are of somehow limited physiological relevance since single core particles do not exist in vivo [K. van Holde, J. Zlatanova, The nucleosome core particle: does it have structural and physiological relevance? Bioessays 21 (1999) 776-778]. This is particularly true for studies involving core histones tails, as in their natural chromatin context histones tails participate in interactions that are not necessarily present in vitro [J.C. Hansen, C. Tse, A.P. Wolffe, Structure and function of the core histone N-termini: more than meets the eye, Biochemistry 37 (1998) 17637-17641; J.J. Hayes, J.C. Hansen, Nucleosomes and chromatin fiber, Curr. Opin. Genet. Dev. 11 (2001) 124-129]. Indeed it was found that human DNA ligase I has the capability to ligate a nick on the surface of a 215 bp nucleosome but not a nick in a nucleosome lacking linker DNA, possibly because of forced interactions between histone tails and core DNA present in the latter complex [D.R. Chafin, J.M. Vitolo, L.A. Henricksen, B.A. Bambara, J.J. Hayes, Human DNA ligase I efficiently seals nicks in nucleosomes, EMBO J. 19 (2000) 5492-5501]. In addition, chromatin remodeling could also occur in the higher ordered folding of chromatin and involve multiple arrays of nucleosomes [P.J. Horn, C.L. Peterson, Chromatin higher order folding: wrapping up transcription, Science 297 (2002) 1824-1827]. By studying the chromatin structure of ribosomal genes in yeast, our knowledge of the fate of nucleosomes during transcription and DNA replication has improved considerably [R. Lucchini, J.M. Sogo, The dynamic structure of ribosomal RNA gene chromatin, in: M.R. Paule (Ed.), Transcription of Ribosomal RNA Genes by Eukaryotic RNA Polymerase 1, Springer-Verlag/R.G. Landes Company, 1998, pp. 254-276]. How nuclear processes such as DNA repair take place in chromatin is still largely unknown, and in this review I discuss how the yeast rDNA locus may be exploited to investigate DNA repair and chromatin modification in vivo. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.