Regulation of the yeast
HO gene is complex, and many genes that regulate
HO have been identified (
16). These include genes encoding the SWI/SNF complex (
22,
32);
SIN1, which encodes an HMG1-like protein (
11);
SIN2, which encodes histone H3;
HHF4, which encodes histone H4 (
12); and
SIN3, which, along with
RPD3, is involved in the deacetylation of histones (
35). In this paper, we show a requirement for the
GCN5 gene, which encodes a histone acetyltransferase (
3), for optimal transcription of the
HO gene.
The identification of histone acetyltransferases and histone deacetylases as transcriptional regulators provides molecular mechanisms whereby transcription might be turned up or down (
38), but so far no such interplay between acetylase and deacetylase activities at a single gene has been reported. The suppression of the
gcn5 defects by deletion of one of the genes encoding a deacetylase activity provides clear support for such interplay at the
HO promoter. The suppression we observed is only partial, suggesting a functional redundancy in the deacetylase activity. Another protein with deacetylase activity is encoded by the gene
HDA1, and three additional ORFs with high levels of homology with
RPD3 and
HDA1 have also been described (
29). However, we observed that deletion of
HDA1 or of one of these additional ORFs (
HOS1) does not suppress the
GCN5 requirement in
HO expression (data not shown). Another explanation for the fact that suppression is only partial is that the
rpd3 deletion may destabilize additional proteins with which it is complexed (
7), and these additional proteins may contribute to the activation of
HO.
The pattern of genetic interactions described in this work suggests a hierarchy of gene function that pertains to chromatin components, histone acetylation, and the SWI/SNF complex. Loss of Swi5 (the major activator protein for the
HO gene [
16]) can be partially suppressed by
sin1,
sin2 (histone H3),
sin3, and
rpd3 mutations (
33,
35). Loss of GCN5 (a histone acetyltransferase, also required for
HO transcription) can be suppressed by these same mutations (Fig. , , and A). However, while defects in the SWI/SNF complex can be suppressed by
sin1 (which is thought to be a target of the SWI/SNF complex [
21] and
sin2 mutations (
11,
12), they cannot be suppressed efficiently by
sin3 or
rpd3 mutations (
33,
35). These results indicate that histone acetylation at the
HO promoter functions upstream of the SWI/SNF complex. Consistent with this view is the strong synergy seen between
rpd3 mutations (which affect the acetylation of histone tails) and
sin1 and
sin2 mutations (which circumvent the need for the SWI/SNF complex) (Fig. B). One hypothesis consistent with this genetic hierarchy is that, at the
HO promoter, histone acetylation precedes and enables the action of the SWI/SNF complex. A similar view has recently been developed independently by Pollard and Peterson (
24a).