Effects of HMGN variants on cellular transcription profile. Mus musculus

HMGN (high mobility group N) is a family of intrinsically disordered nuclear proteins that binds to nucleosomes, alters the structure of chromatin and affects transcription. A major unresolved question is the extent of functional specificity, or redundancy, between the various members of the HMGN protein family. Here we analyze the transcriptional profile of cells in which the expression of various HMGN proteins has been either deleted or doubled. The results reveal an HMGN-variant specific effect on the fidelity of the cellular transcription profile, indicating that functionally, the various HMGN subtypes are not fully redundant. Overall design: RNA was collected from either primary knock-out MEFs or SV40-transformed MEFs and MIN6 cells over expressing various HMGN proteins and mutants and hybridized to Affymetrix arrays. We obtained a double ammount of HMGN proteins in MEFs and MIN6 cells by retroviral infection and subsequent selection procedure. We collected all infected cells (pools, not clones) in order to eliminate the effect of viral integration in the genome.