Kinetic proofreading of chromatin remodeling: from gene activation to gene repression and back

ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling is the active displacement of nucleosomes along or off DNA induced by chromatin remodeling complexes. This key process of gene regulation in eukaryote organisms has recently been argued to be controlled by a kinetic proofreading mechanism. In this paper we present a discussion of the current understanding of this process. We review the case of gene repression via heterochromatin formation by remodelers from the ISWI family and then discuss the activation of the IFN- β gene, where the displacement of the nucleosome is initiated by histone tail acetylations by the enzyme GCN5 which are required for the recruitment of SWI-SNF remodelers. We quantify the speci city of the acetylation step in the remodeling process by peptide docking simulations.