Molecular architecture of nucleosome remodeling and deacetylase sub-complexes by integrative structure determination

The nucleosome remodeling and deacetylase (NuRD) complex is a chromatin-modifying assembly that regulates gene expression and DNA damage repair. Despite its importance, limited structural information describing the complete NuRD complex is available and a detailed understanding of its mechanism is therefore lacking. Drawing on information from SEC-MALLS, DIA-MS, XLMS, negative-stain EM, X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy, secondary structure predictions, and homology models, we applied Bayesian integrative structure determination to investigate the molecular architecture of three NuRD sub-complexes: MTA1-HDAC1-RBBP4, MTA1(N)-HDAC1-MBD3(GATAD2CC), and MTA1-HDAC1-RBBP4-MBD3-GATAD2A [nucleosome deacetylase (NuDe)]. The integrative structures were corroborated by examining independent crosslinks, cryo-EM maps, biochemical assays, known cancer-associated mutations, and structure predictions from AlphaFold. The robustness of the models was assessed by jack-knifing. Localization of the full-length MBD3, which connects the deacetylase and chromatin remodeling modules in NuRD, has not previously been possible; our models indicate two different locations for MBD3, suggesting a mechanism by which MBD3 in the presence of GATAD2A asymmetrically bridges the two modules in NuRD. Further, our models uncovered three previously unrecognized subunit interfaces in NuDe: HDAC1(C)-MTA1(BAH), MTA1(BAH)-MBD3(MBD), and HDAC1(60-100)-MBD3(MBD). Our approach also allowed us to localize regions of unknown structure, such as HDAC1(C) and MBD3(IDR), thereby resulting in the most complete and robustly cross-validated structural characterization of these NuRD sub-complexes so far.