Single-molecule imaging reveals control of parental histone recycling by free histones during DNA replication

Abstract

Faithful replication of chromatin domains during cell division is fundamental to eukaryotic development. During replication, nucleosomes are disrupted ahead of the replication fork, followed by their rapid reassembly on daughter strands from the pool of recycled parental and newly synthesized histones. Here, we use single-molecule imaging and replication assays in Xenopus laevis egg extracts to determine the outcome of replication fork encounters with nucleosomes. Contrary to current models, the majority of parental histones are evicted from the DNA, with histone recycling, nucleosome sliding and replication fork stalling also occurring but at lower frequencies. The anticipated local histone transfer only becomes dominant upon depletion of free histones from extracts. Our studies provide the first direct evidence that parental histones remain in close proximity to their original locus during recycling and reveal that provision of excess histones results in impaired histone recycling, which has the potential to affect epigenetic memory.