Hernan Diego Folco

Publications (2)62.4 Total impact

• Source

  Available from: Abdelhalim Boukaba

  Article: Synthetic heterochromatin bypasses RNAi and centromeric repeats to establish functional centromeres.

  Alexander Kagansky, Hernan Diego Folco, Ricardo Almeida, Alison L Pidoux, Abdelhalim Boukaba, Femke Simmer, Takeshi Urano, Georgina L Hamilton, Robin C Allshire
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  ABSTRACT: In the central domain of fission yeast centromeres, the kinetochore is assembled on CENP-A(Cnp1) nucleosomes. Normally, small interfering RNAs generated from flanking outer repeat transcripts direct histone H3 lysine 9 methyltransferase Clr4 to homologous loci to form heterochromatin. Outer repeats, RNA interference (RNAi), and centromeric heterochromatin are required to establish CENP-A(Cnp1) chromatin. We demonstrated that tethering Clr4 via DNA-binding sites at euchromatic loci induces heterochromatin assembly, with or without active RNAi. This synthetic heterochromatin completely substitutes for outer repeats on plasmid-based minichromosomes, promoting de novo CENP-A(Cnp1) and kinetochore assembly, to allow their mitotic segregation, even with RNAi inactive. Thus, the role of outer repeats in centromere establishment is simply the provision of RNAi substrates to direct heterochromatin formation; H3K9 methylation-dependent heterochromatin is alone sufficient to form functional centromeres.
  Science 07/2009; 324(5935):1716-9. · 31.20 Impact Factor
• Article: Heterochromatin and RNAi are required to establish CENP-A chromatin at centromeres.

  Hernan Diego Folco, Alison L Pidoux, Takeshi Urano, Robin C Allshire
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  ABSTRACT: Heterochromatin is defined by distinct posttranslational modifications on histones, such as methylation of histone H3 at lysine 9 (H3K9), which allows heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1)-related chromodomain proteins to bind. Heterochromatin is frequently found near CENP-A chromatin, which is the key determinant of kinetochore assembly. We have discovered that the RNA interference (RNAi)-directed heterochromatin flanking the central kinetochore domain at fission yeast centromeres is required to promote CENP-A(Cnp1) and kinetochore assembly over the central domain. The H3K9 methyltransferase Clr4 (Suv39); the ribonuclease Dicer, which cleaves heterochromatic double-stranded RNA to small interfering RNA (siRNA); Chp1, a component of the RNAi effector complex (RNA-induced initiation of transcriptional gene silencing; RITS); and Swi6 (HP1) are required to establish CENP-A(Cnp1) chromatin on naïve templates. Once assembled, CENP-A(Cnp1) chromatin is propagated by epigenetic means in the absence of heterochromatin. Thus, another, potentially conserved, role for centromeric RNAi-directed heterochromatin has been identified.
  Science 02/2008; 319(5859):94-7. · 31.20 Impact Factor