Abstract
Histone variants and histone modifications are essential components in the establishment and maintenance of the repressed status of heterochromatin. Among these histone variants and modifications, acetylation at histone H4K16 is uniquely important for the maintenance of silencing at telomere and mating type loci but not at the ribosomal DNA locus. Here we show that mutations at H3 N-terminal acetylation site K14 specifically disrupt rDNA silencing. However, the mutant ion at H3K14R doesn't affect the recruitment of Pol II repressor RENT (regulator of nucleolar silencing and telophase exit) complex at the rDNA region. Instead, the CAF-1(chromatin assembly factor I) subunit Cac2 level decreased in the H3K14R mutant. Further experiments revealed that the single mutation at H3K14 and multi-site mutations at H3 N-terminus including K14 also delayed replication-depend nucleosome assembly and advanced replicative life span. In conclusion, our data suggest that histone H3 N-terminal acetylation sites especially at K14 are important for rDNA silencing and aging.