The budding yeast Fkh1 Forkhead associated (FHA) domain promotes the G1-chromatin status and activity of chromosomal DNA replication origins.

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae the forkhead (Fkh) transcription factor Fkh1 ( f or k head h omolog) enhances the activity of many DNA replication origins that act in early S-phase (early origins). Fkh1 binds directly to origin-adjacent Fkh1 binding sites (FKH sites), providing evidence that Fkh1 acts directly. However, the post-DNA binding functions that Fkh1 uses to promote early origin activity are undefined. Fkh1 contains a conserved FHA ( f ork h ead a ssociated) domain, a protein-binding module that binds phosphothreonine (pT)-containing partner proteins. At a small subset of yeast origins, the Fkh1-FHA domain enhances the ORC ( o rigin r ecognition c omplex) -origin binding step, the G1-phase event that initiates the origin cycle. The relevance of the Fkh1-FHA to either chromosomal replication or ORC-origin interactions at genome scale has not been reported. Here, S-phase SortSeq experiments were used to assess genome replication in proliferating FKH1 and fkh1R80A mutant cells. The data provided evidence that the Fkh1-FHA domain promoted the activity of ≈ 100 origins that act in early S-phase, including the majority of centromere-associated origins, while simultaneously inhibiting ≈ 100 late origins. ORC ChIPSeq data provided evidence that the Fkh1-FHA domain promoted normal ORC-origin binding at FHA-stimulated origins. Origins are associated with a distinctive nucleosome organization that frames a nucleosome deplected region (NDR) over the origin, with ORC contributing to this architecture. To ask whether the Fkh1-FHA domain had an impact on the ORC and nucleosome protein-DNA interactions at origins, MNaseSeq data were generated from G1-arrested and proliferating FKH1 and fkh1R80A mutant cell populations. These data provided evidence that origin groups differentially regulated by the Fkh1-FHA domain were characterized by distinct G1-phase ORC and nucleosome configurations that were Fkh1FHA-dependent. Thus, the Fkh1-FHA domain performed an important post-DNA binding role of the Fkh1 protein in promoting hallmarks of origin-associated protein-DNA architecture in G1-phase and the activity of early origins in S-phase.