Rapid reversible changes in compartments and local chromatin organization revealed by hyper-osmotic shock
Abstract
Nuclear architecture is decisive for the assembly of transcriptional responses. However, how chromosome organization is dynamically modulated to permit rapid and transient changes of transcription in response to environmental challenges remains unclear. Here we show that hyper-osmotic stress disrupts different levels of chromosome organization, ranging from A/B compartment changes to reduction in the number and insulation of topologically associating domains (TADs). Concomitantly, transcription is greatly affected, TAD borders weaken, and RNA Polymerase II runs off from hundreds of transcription end sites. Stress alters the binding profiles of architectural proteins, which explains the disappearance of local chromatin organization. These processes are dynamic, and cells rapidly reconstitute their default chromatin conformation after stress removal, uncovering an intrinsic organization. Transcription is not required for local chromatin re-organization while compartment recovery is partially dependent. Thus, nuclear organization in mammalian cells can be rapidly modulated by environmental changes in a reversible manner.
- Received April 15, 2018.
- Accepted November 22, 2018.
- Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
This manuscript is Open Access.
This article, published in Genome Research, is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license), as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
