HMG I/Y regulates long-range enhancer-dependent transcription on DNA and chromatin by changes in DNA topology

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Abstract
The nature of nuclear structures that are required to confer transcriptional regulation by distal enhancers is unknown. We show that long-range enhancer-dependent β-globin transcription is achieved in vitro upon addition of the DNA architectural protein HMG I/Y to affinity-enriched holo RNA polymerase II complexes. In this system, HMG I/Y represses promoter activity in the absence of an associated enhancer and strongly activates transcription in the presence of a distal enhancer. Importantly, nucleosome formation is neither necessary for long-range enhancer regulation in vitro nor sufficient without the addition of HMG I/Y. Thus, the modulation of DNA structure by HMG I/Y is a critical regulator of long-range enhancer function on both DNA and chromatin-assembled genes. Electron microscopic analysis reveals that HMG I/Y binds cooperatively to preferred DNA sites to generate distinct looped structures in the presence or absence of the β-globin enhancer. The formation of DNA topologies that enable distal enhancers to strongly regulate gene expression is an intrinsic property of HMG I/Y and naked DNA.