Reference - PMID:38289024 - Heat stress-induced activation of MAPK pathway attenuates Atf1-dependent epigenetic inheritance of heterochromatin in fission yeast.

Reference summary

PubMed ID

PMID:38289024

Title

Heat stress-induced activation of MAPK pathway attenuates Atf1-dependent epigenetic inheritance of heterochromatin in fission yeast.

Authors

Sun L, Liu L, Song C, Wang Y, Jin QW

Citation

Elife 2024 Jan 30;13

Publication year

2024

Abstract

Eukaryotic cells are constantly exposed to various environmental stimuli. It remains largely unexplored how environmental cues bring about epigenetic fluctuations and affect heterochromatin stability. In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe , heterochromatic silencing is quite stable at pericentromeres but unstable at the mating-type ( mat ) locus under chronic heat stress, although both loci are within the major constitutive heterochromatin regions. Here, we found that the compromised gene silencing at the mat locus at elevated temperature is linked to the phosphorylation status of Atf1, a member of the ATF/CREB superfamily. Constitutive activation of MAPK signaling disrupts epigenetic maintenance of heterochromatin at the mat locus even under normal temperature. Mechanistically, phosphorylation of Atf1 impairs its interaction with heterochromatin protein Swi6 HP1 , resulting in lower site-specific Swi6 HP1 enrichment. Expression of non-phosphorylatable Atf1, tethering Swi6 HP1 to the mat3M -flanking site or absence of the anti-silencing factor Epe1 can largely or partially rescue heat stress-induced defective heterochromatic maintenance at the mat locus.

Annotation