Cellular quiescence is a reversible differentiation state when cells are changing the gene expression program to reduce metabolic functions and adapt to a new cellular environment. When fission yeast cells are deprived of nitrogen in the absence of any mating partner, cells can reversibly arrest in a differentiated G0-like cellular state, called quiescence. This change is accompanied by a marked alteration of nuclear organization and a global reduction of transcription. Using high-throughput flow cytometry combined with genetic analysis, we describe the results of a comprehensive screen for genes encoding chromatin components and regulators that are required for the entry and the maintenance of cellular quiescence. We show that the histone acetylase and deacetylase complexes, SAGA and Rpd3, have key roles both for G0 entry and survival during quiescence. We reveal a novel function for the Ino80 nucleosome remodeling complex in cellular quiescence. Finally, we demonstrate that components of the MRN complex, Rad3, the nonhomologous end-joining, and nucleotide excision DNA repair pathways are essential for viability in G0.

Heterochromatin regulation is critical for genomic stability. Different H3K9 methylation states have been discovered, with distinct roles in heterochromatin formation and silencing. However, how the transition from H3K9me2 to H3K9me3 is controlled is still unclear. Here, we investigate the role of the conserved bromodomain AAA-ATPase, Abo1, involved in maintaining global nucleosome organisation in fission yeast. We identified several key factors involved in heterochromatin silencing that interact genetically with Abo1: histone deacetylase Clr3, H3K9 methyltransferase Clr4, and HP1 homolog Swi6. Cells lacking Abo1 cultivated at 30 °C exhibit an imbalance of H3K9me2 and H3K9me3 in heterochromatin. In abo1∆ cells, the centromeric constitutive heterochromatin has increased H3K9me2 but decreased H3K9me3 levels compared to wild-type. In contrast, facultative heterochromatin regions exhibit reduced H3K9me2 and H3K9me3 levels in abo1∆. Genome-wide analysis showed that abo1∆ cells have silencing defects in both the centromeres and subtelomeres, but not in a subset of heterochromatin islands in our condition. Thus, our work uncovers a role of Abo1 in stabilising directly or indirectly Clr4 recruitment to allow the H3K9me2 to H3K9me3 transition in heterochromatin.In eukaryotic cells, the regions of the chromatin that contain active genes are termed euchromatin, and these regions condense in mitosis to allow for chromosome segregation and decondense in interphase to allow for gene transcription 1 . The chromatin regions that remain condensed throughout the cell cycle are defined as heterochromatin regions and are transcriptionally repressed 2,3 . In general, heterochromatin can be defined molecularly by the modification of histone H3, specifically the absence of methylation on lysine 4 (H3K4me) and presence of methylation on lysine 9 (H3K9me) 4-6 . A conserved group of heterochromatin proteins, the heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) family, specifically recognise heterochromatin regions by binding to H3K9me. Both di-and tri-methylation (H3K9me2/3) enable the binding of HP1 proteins to silence heterochromatin 7,8 . Heterochromatin regions can be further classified into constitutive and facultative heterochromatin 9,10 . Fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, is an excellent model organism for chromatin studies because its heterochromatin organisation is similar to human cells 11,12 . Examples of constitutive heterochromatin regions in S. pombe are the pericentromeric regions that contain repetitive DNA sequences 13 . These regions are regulated by RNAi-dependent silencing machinery that involves protein Dcr1 and Ago1 14,15 . In contrast, the silencing of facultative heterochromatin, such as subtelomeric regions and heterochromatin islands, is mediated by RNAi-independent machinery that can be dynamically modulated to express genes required for the cell cycle or adaptation to the cell environment 16,17 . A subset of facultative heterochromatin islands, known as "determinant of selective removal" (DSR) islands, contain meiotic ...

Cellular quiescence is an important physiological state both in unicellular and multicellular eukaryotes. Quiescent cells are halted for proliferation and stop the cell cycle at the G0 stage. Using fission yeast as a model organism, we have previously found that several subunits of a conserved chromatin remodeling complex, Ino80C (INOsitol requiring nucleosome remodeling factor), are required for survival in quiescence. Here, we demonstrate that Ino80C has a key function in the regulation of gene expression in G0 cells. We show that null mutants for two Ino80C subunits, Iec1 and Ies2, a putative subunit Arp42, a null mutant for the histone variant H2A.Z, and a null mutant for the Inositol kinase Asp1 have very similar phenotypes in quiescence. These mutants show reduced transcription genome-wide and specifically fail to activate 149 quiescence genes, of which many are localized to the subtelomeric regions. Using spike in normalized ChIP-seq experiments, we show that there is a global reduction of H2A.Z levels in quiescent wild-type cells but not in iec1∆ cells and that a subtelomeric chromosome boundary element is strongly affected by Ino80C. Based on these observations, we propose a model in which Ino80C is evicting H2A.Z from chromatin in quiescent cells, thereby inactivating the subtelomeric boundary element, leading to a reorganization of the chromosome structure and activation of genes required to survive in quiescence.