Background information: Commitment to splicing occurs co-transcriptionally, but a major unanswered question is the extent to which various modifications of chromatin, the template for transcription in vivo, contribute to the regulation of splicing.
Results: Here, we perform genome-wide analyses showing that inhibition of specific marks - H2B ubiquitylation, H3K4 methylation and H3K36 methylation - perturbs splicing in budding yeast, with each modification exerting gene-specific effects. Furthermore, semi-quantitative mass spectrometry on purified nuclear mRNPs and chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis on intron-containing genes indicated that H2B ubiquitylation, but not Set1-, Set2- or Dot1-dependent H3 methylation, stimulates recruitment of the early splicing factors, namely U1 and U2 snRNPs, onto nascent RNAs.
Conclusions: These results suggest that histone modifications impact splicing of distinct subsets of genes using distinct pathways.
Keywords: H2B ubiquitylation; Histone marks; Pre-mRNA Splicing; snRNP.
© 2014 Société Française des Microscopies and Société de Biologie Cellulaire de France. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.