Competition between transcription factors and histones, and the role of the histone H3 amino terminus, during gene regulation in budding yeast

DNA in eukaryotes is packaged into chromatin by association with the four histone proteins, H2A, H2B, H3, and H4, to form nucleosomes. Transcription factors must recognize particular DNA sequences to activate genes and so must compete with the histories for occupancy of their cognate binding sites. Beyond this repressive role, the histories have also adopted regulatory roles, both positive and negative, which are largely mediated by amino terminal "tails" that do not contribute to the basic structure of the nucleosome. Here, we describe some of our recent progress in understanding how transcription factors compete with histones for binding site occupancy and also discuss recent results on the global role of the histone H3 amino terminus in regulating gene expression in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.