Molecular Mechanism of the Nucleosome Assembly/Disassembly Mediated by Histone Chaperone CIA; Implications for Epigenetic Information Inheritance

Abstract

CIA is the most conserved histone chaperone in the eukaryotes. The biochemical and X-ray crystallographic studies have revealed that CIA splits the histone (H3-H4)₂ tetramer into two histone H3-H4 dimers through the CIA-histone-H3-H4 complex formation. The histone (H3-H4)₂ tetramer splitting activity of CIA gives new insights into the mechanism of the nucleosome assembly/disassembly, the relationship between nucleosome assembly/disassembly and epigenetic modifications of histones, and the mechanism of the epigenetic information inheritance through the semi-conservative nucleosome replication mode.