Biopolym. Cell. 1985; 1(3):141-146.
Biopolymers and Genome Regulation
Histone H1 and transcriptionally active chromatin regions
1Karavanov A. A.
  1. N. K. Koltsov Institute of Developmental Biology, Academy of Sciences of the USSR
    Moscow, USSR

Abstract

The method of limited digestion of mouse spleen nuclei with DNAse I combined with electrophoretic analysis of proteins released from nuclei is used to investigate the participation of HI histone in the organization of transcriptionally active chromatin regions. The data obtained show that transcriptionally active chromatin regions digested under applied conditions do not contain at all or contain insignificant amounts of HI histone. Surprisingly, 0.35 M NaCl extraction of nuclei following selective extraction of HI histone at pH 3.0 is also found to result in the release of nucleosomal core histones possibly enriched in hyperacetylated species. It is proposed that while HI histone is not involved in the organization of transcriptionally active regions at the level of primary nucleosome fibre it may play an essential role in their organization at higher levels of chromatin packaging in nuclei participating in the stabilization of interactions between modified species of histones and DNA.

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