Abstract
THE genome of eukaryotes is organised in nucleoprotein fibres formed by the interaction of the DNA with small basic proteins, the histones, and by specific interactions between certain histones1. To gain more insight into the molecular organisation of chromosomes it is necessary to determine in detail the complexity and variability of the histones. The chromosomes of eukaryotes contain five major types of histones. One of these, the very lysine-rich H1, consists of a small number of poly-peptides which differ slightly in primary structure and which are present in different relative amounts in different tissues2. The other four histones, which are involved in histone–histone interactions, were considered homogeneous and invariable until it became possible to resolve H2a, H2b and H3 into variants which exhibit tissue-specific variation by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in presence of non-ionic detergents3 (Fig. 1). We report here on the primary structure of the variants of mammalian histones 2a, 2b and 3.
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FRANKLIN, S., ZWEIDLER, A. Non-allelic variants of histones 2a, 2b and 3 in mammals. Nature 266, 273–275 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/266273a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/266273a0
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