Purification and Characterization of Hrp1, a Homolog of Mouse CHD1 from the Fission Yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe

Hrp1, of Schizosaccharomyces pombe, is a new member of the SW12/SNF2 protein family that contains a chromodomain and a DNA binding domain as well as ATPase/7 helicase domains. This configuration suggests that Hrp1 could be a homolog of mouse CHD1, which is thought to function in altering the chromatin structure to facilitate gene expression. To understand the enzymatic nature of Hrp1 we purified the 6-Histidine-tagged Hrp1 protein (6$\times$His-Hrp1) to homogeneity from a S. pombe Hrp1-overexpressing strain and hen examined its biochemical properties. We demonstrate that the purified 6$\times$His-Hrp1 protein exhibited a DNA-binding activity with a moderate preference to the (A＋T)-rich tract in double-stranded NA via a minor groove interaction. However, we failed to detect any intrinsic DNA helicase activity from the purified Hrp1 like other SW12/SNF2 proteins. These observations suggest that the DNA binding activities of Hrp1 may be involved in the remodeling of the chromatin structure with DNA-dependent ATPase. We propose that Hrp1 may function in heterochromatins as other proteins with a chromo- or ATPase/helicase domain and play an important role in the determination of chromatin architecture.