Structural insight into chromatin recognition by multiple domains of the tumor suppressor RBBP1.
Gong, W., Liang, Q., Tong, Y., Perrett, S., Feng, Y.(2021) J Mol Biol : 167224-167224
- PubMed: 34506790 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmb.2021.167224
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
6L87 - PubMed Abstract: 
Retinoblastoma-binding protein 1 (RBBP1) is involved in gene regulation, epigenetic regulation, and disease processes. RBBP1 contains five domains with DNA-binding or histone-binding activities, but how RBBP1 specifically recognizes chromatin is still unknown. An AT-rich interaction domain (ARID) in RBBP1 was proposed to be the key region for DNA-binding and gene suppression. Here, we first determined the solution structure of a tandem PWWP-ARID domain mutant of RBBP1 after deletion of a long flexible acidic loop L12 in the ARID domain. NMR titration results indicated that the ARID domain interacts with DNA with no GC- or AT-rich preference. Surprisingly, we found that the loop L12 binds to the DNA-binding region of the ARID domain as a DNA mimic and inhibits DNA binding. The loop L12 can also bind weakly to the Tudor and chromobarrel domains of RBBP1, but binds more strongly to the DNA-binding region of the histone H2A-H2B heterodimer. Furthermore, both the loop L12 and DNA can enhance the binding of the chromobarrel domain to H3K4me3 and H4K20me3. Based on these results, we propose a model of chromatin recognition by RBBP1, which highlights the unexpected multiple key roles of the disordered acidic loop L12 in the specific binding of RBBP1 to chromatin.
Organizational Affiliation: 
National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, CAS Center for Excellence in Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China. Electronic address: gongweibin@ibp.ac.cn.