Distinct differences in chromatin structure at telomeric X- and Y-elements in budding yeast.. Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The telomeric repeat sequences (TGTGG) are the same at all chromosome ends, but the number and position of subtelomeric X and Y repeat elements vary. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation and genome-wide analyses, we here demonstrate that the subtelomeric X and Y elements have distinct structural and functional properties. Y elements are transcriptionally active and highly enriched in histones, whereas X elements are repressed and completely devoid of nucleosomes. In contrast to X elements, the Y elements lack the classical hallmarks of heterochromatin, e.g. high Sir3 and Rap1 occupancy as well as low levels of histone 4 lysine 16 acetylation, Our analyses refute the idea that subtelomeric silencing is a general phenomenon and suggest that the presence of X and Y elements govern the chromatin structure and transcription activtiy at individual chromosome ends. Keywords: nucleosome position and Histone 4 lys 16 acetylation Chip on CHIP Overall design: Two experiment series were included in this study. First is nucleosome position of wild type budding yeast strain. Second one is H4K16Ac in wild type strains. Genome background control was used as the control channel.