Genome wide analysis of the Ssn6-Tup11/Tup12 co-repressor complex in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe

Abstract

In this study, we have investigated the fission yeast Ssn6-Tup11 /Tup 12 transcriptional corepressor which is involved in regulation of many genes important for a wide variety of processes. In contrast to the well characterised budding yeast Tup1 protein there are two paralogous proteins present in fission yeast, namely Tup11 and Tup12. We have shown that the two proteins can interact with each other and are expressed at similar levels, which is in line with a reported redundant function. Sequence analysis shows that the intermediate proposed histone interacting domain is highly variable between Tup11 and Tup12 indicating a diversification. Interestingly, we show that tup11 and tup12 mutants have different phenotypes on media containing KC1 and CaC12. Consistent with this functional difference, we identify a number of target genes by genome wide expression profiling that are differentially affected by tup11 - and tup12. Many of these genes are Tup12 dependent and correlate with genes that have previously been shown to respond to a range of different environmental stress conditions. The observed different physiological roles of Tup11 and Tup12 can not be explained by differential recruitment of Ssn6 which can interact independently with both Tup11 and Tup12. Most interestingly we show that the Ssn6 protein is essential in fission yeast and therefore must have a distinct role separated from Tup11 and Tup12. Surprisingly, a conditional ssn6HA-ts mutant displays the same growth phenotype as tup12, indicating a role in Tup12 dependent stress response. Consistent with the diverse phenotypes of the individual co-repressor proteins, we identify a group of genes that requires Ssn6 for their regulation which is overlapping but distinct from the group of genes that depend on Tup11 or Tup12. Genome wide chromatin immunoprecipitation shows that Ssn6 is almost invariably found in the same genomic locations as Tup11 and/or Tup12. All three co-repressor subunits are generally bound to genes that are selectively regulated by Ssn6 or Tup11/12, and thus, likely in the context of a co-repressor complex containing all three subunits. The co-repressor binds to both the intergenic and coding regions of genes, but differential localization of the co-repressor within genes does not appear to account for the selective dependence of target genes on the Ssn6 or Tup11/12 subunits. Ssn6, Tup11, and Tup12 are preferentially found at genomic locations at which histones are deacetylated, primarily by the Clr6 class I HDAC. A subset of co-repressor target genes, including direct target genes affected by Ssn6 overexpression, is in addition associated with the function of class II (Clr3) and III (Hst4 and Sir2) HDACs. Interestingly, many specific Hst4 repressed ORF targets involved in amino acid biosynthesis are also direct targets for the Ssn6-Tup11/12 co-repressor, suggesting an association with the class ill sirtuins which has not been reported previously.