Abstract
The maintenance of open and repressed chromatin states is crucial for the regulation of gene expression. To study the genes involved in maintaining chromatin states, we generated a random mutant library in Schizosaccharomyces pombe and monitored the silencing of reporter genes inserted into the euchromatic region adjacent to the heterochromatic mating type locus. We show that Leo1-Paf1 [a subcomplex of the RNA polymerase II-associated factor 1 complex (Paf1C)] is required to prevent the spreading of heterochromatin into euchromatin by mapping the heterochromatin mark H3K9me2 using high-resolution genomewide ChIP (ChIP-exo). Loss of Leo1-Paf1 increases heterochromatin stability at several facultative heterochromatin loci in an RNAi-independent manner. Instead, deletion of Leo1 decreases nucleosome turnover, leading to heterochromatin stabilization. Our data reveal that Leo1-Paf1 promotes chromatin state fluctuations by enhancing histone turnover.