SWI/SNF and RSC cooperate to reposition and evict promoter nucleosomes at highly expressed genes in yeast

The nucleosome remodeling complex RSC functions throughout the yeast genome to set the positions of -1 and +1 nucleosomes and thereby determines the widths of nucleosome-depleted regions (NDRs). The related complex SWI/SNF participates in nucleosome remodeling/eviction and promoter activation at certain yeast genes, including those activated by transcription factor Gcn4, but does not appear to function broadly in establishing NDRs. By analyzing the large cohort of Gcn4-induced genes in mutants lacking the catalytic subunits of SWI/SNF or RSC, we uncovered cooperation between these remodelers in evicting nucleosomes from different locations in the promoter and in repositioning the +1 nucleosome downstream to produce wider NDRs, highly depleted of nucleosomes, during transcriptional activation. SWI/SNF also functions on par with RSC at the most highly transcribed constitutively expressed genes, suggesting general cooperation by these remodelers for maximal transcription. SWI/SNF and RSC occupancies are greatest at the most highly expressed genes, consistent with their cooperative functions in nucleosome remodeling and transcriptional activation. Thus, SWI/SNF acts comparably to RSC in forming wide, nucleosome-free NDRs to achieve high-level transcription, but only at the most highly expressed genes exhibiting the greatest SWI/SNF occupancies. Sonicated or Micrococcal Nuclease digested DNA fragments were immunopurified and subjected to paired-end sequencing. This study includes paired-end sequencing studies of (1) ChIP samples for the histone H3, (2) ChIP samples for the histone H2B, (3) ChIP samples for the Rpb3 subunit of Pol II.