Spatiotemporal regulation of Heterochromatin Protein 1-alpha oligomerization and dynamics in live cells

Heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) is a central factor in establishing and maintaining the heterochromatin state. As consequence of playing a structural role in heterochromatin, HP1 proteins can have both an activating as well as repressive function in gene expression. Here we probe how oligomerisation of the HP1-α isoform modulates interaction with chromatin, by spatially resolved fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS). We find from fluctuation analysis of HP1-α dynamics that this isoform exists as a dimer around the periphery of heterochromatin foci and these foci locally rotate with characteristic turn rates that range from 5-100 ms. From inhibition of HP1-α homo-oligomerization we find the slow turn rates (20-100 ms) are dimer dependent. From treatment with drugs that disrupt or promote chromatin compaction, we find that HP1-α dimers spatially redistribute to favor fast (5-10 ms) or slow (20-100 ms) turn rates. Collectively our results demonstrate HP1-α oligomerization is critical to the maintenance of heterochromatin and the tunable dynamics of this HP1 isoform.