Regulated acetylation and deacetylation of H4 K16 is essential for efficient NER in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Acetylation status of H4 K16, a residue in the histone H4 N-terminal tail plays a unique role in regulating chromatin structure and function. Here we show that, during UV-induced nucleotide excision repair H4 K16 gets hyperacetylated following an initial phase of hypoacetylation. Disrupting H4 K16 acetylation-deacetylation by mutating H4 K16 to R (deacetylated state) or Q (acetylated state) leads to compromised chromatin functions. In the silenced mating locus and telomere region H4 K16 mutants show higher recruitment of Sir proteins and spreading beyond the designated boundaries. More significantly, chromatin of both the H4 K16 mutants has reduced accessibility in the silenced regions and genome wide. On UV irradiation, the mutants showed higher UV sensitivity, reduced NER rate and altered H3 N-terminal tail acetylation, compared to wild type. NER efficiency is affected by reduced or delayed recruitment of early NER proteins and chromatin remodeller Swi/Snf along with lack of nucleosome rearrangement during repair. Additionally UV-induced expression of RAD and SNF5 genes was reduced in the mutants. Hindered chromatin accessibility in the H4 K16 mutants is thus non conducive for gene expression as well as recruitment of NER and chromatin remodeller proteins. Subsequently, inadequate nucleosomal rearrangement during early phases of repair impeded accessibility of the NER complex to DNA lesions, in the H4 K16 mutants. Effectively, NER efficiency was found to be compromised in the mutants. Interestingly, in the transcriptionally active chromatin region, both the H4 K16 mutants showed reduced NER rate during early repair time points. However, with progression of repair H4 K16R repaired faster than K16Q mutants and rate of CPD removal became differential between the two mutants during later NER phases. To summarize, our results establish the essentiality of regulated acetylation and deacetylation of H4 K16 residue in maintaining chromatin accessibility and efficiency of functions like NER and gene expression.