PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Thomas C.R. Miller
AU  - Bernd Simon
AU  - Vladimir Rybin
AU  - Helga Grötsch
AU  - Sandrine Curtet
AU  - Saadi Khochbin
AU  - Teresa Carlomagno
AU  - Christoph W. Müller
TI  - A bromodomain-DNA interaction facilitates acetylation-dependent bivalent nucleosome recognition by the BET protein BRDT
AID  - 10.1101/074773
DP  - 2016 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 074773
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/09/12/074773.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/09/12/074773.full
AB  - Bromodomains are critical components of many chromatin modifying/remodeling proteins and are emerging therapeutic targets, yet how they interact with nucleosomes, rather than acetylated peptides, remains unclear. Using BRDT as a model, we characterized how the BET family of bromodomains interacts with site-specifically acetylated nucleosomes. We find that BRDT interacts with nucleosomes through its first (BD1), but not second (BD2) bromodomain, and that acetylated histone recognition by BD1 is complemented by a novel bromodomain-DNA interaction. Simultaneous DNA and histone recognition enhances BRDT's nucleosome binding affinity, specificity, and ability to localize to and compact acetylated chromatin. Conservation of DNA binding in bromodomains of BRD2, BRD3 and BRD4, indicates that bivalent nucleosome recognition is a key feature of these bromodomains and possibly others. Our results elucidate the molecular mechanism of BRDT association with nucleosomes and identify new structural features of BET bromodomains that may be targeted for therapeutic inhibition.