Priming the nucleosome: a role for HMGB proteins?

The high-mobility-group B (HMGB) chromosomal proteins are characterized by the HMG box, a DNA-binding domain that both introduces a tight bend into DNA and binds preferentially to a variety of distorted DNA structures. The HMGB proteins seem to act primarily as architectural facilitators in the manipulation of nucleoprotein complexes; for example, in the assembly of complexes involved in recombination and transcription. Recent genetic and biochemical evidence suggests that these proteins can facilitate nucleosome remodelling. One mechanism by which HMGB proteins could prime the nucleosome for migration is to loosen the wrapped DNA and so enhance accessibility to chromatin-remodelling complexes and possibly also to transcription factors. By constraining a tight loop of untwisted DNA at the edge of a nucleosome, an HMGB protein could induce movements in the contacts between certain core histones that would result in an overall change in nucleosome structure.