{"doi":"10.1007/s00412-020-00732-x","title":"Heterochromatin formation in Drosophila requires genome-wide histone deacetylation in cleavage chromatin before mid-blastula transition in early embryogenesis","abstract":"Su(var) mutations define epigenetic factors controlling heterochromatin formation and gene silencing in Drosophila. Here, we identify SU(VAR)2-1 as a novel chromatin regulator that directs global histone deacetylation during the transition of cleavage chromatin into somatic blastoderm chromatin in early embryogenesis. SU(VAR)2-1 is heterochromatin-associated in blastoderm nuclei but not in later stages of development. In larval polytene chromosomes, SU(VAR)2-1 is a band-specific protein. SU(VAR)2-1 directs global histone deacetylation by recruiting the histone deacetylase RPD3. In Su(var)2-1 mutants H3K9, H3K27, H4K8 and H4K16 acetylation shows elevated levels genome-wide and heterochromatin displays aberrant histone hyper-acetylation. Whereas H3K9me2- and HP1a-binding appears unaltered, the heterochromatin-specific H3K9me2S10ph composite mark is impaired in heterochromatic chromocenters of larval salivary polytene chromosomes. SU(VAR)2-1 contains an NRF1/EWG domain and a C2HC zinc-finger motif. Our study identifies SU(VAR)2-1 as a dosage-dependent, heterochromatin-initiating SU(VAR) factor, where the SU(VAR)2-1-mediated control of genome-wide histone deacetylation after cleavage and before mid-blastula transition (pre-MBT) is required to enable heterochromatin formation.","journal":"Chromosoma","year":2020,"id":73144,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":13,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9557,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":386432,"name":"Sandy Schrahn","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":386433,"name":"Veiko Krauß","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":386434,"name":"Sandro Lein","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":386435,"name":"Jeannette Kessler","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":385194,"name":"Thomas Jenuwein","orcid":"0000-0002-0470-0421","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":386436,"name":"Günter Reuter","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":385193,"name":"Matthias Walther","orcid":"0009-0007-1159-566X","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":76,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T21:45:32.034078Z","pmid":"31950239","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}