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Uncoupled synthesis of histones and DNA during Friend cell differentiation

Nature volume 276, pages 276–277 (1978)Cite this article

Abstract

ERYTHROLEUKAEMIC mouse spleen cells (Friend cells) can undergo erythropoietic differentiation in vitro when cultured in the presence of a variety of different inducers1–6. Untreated Friend cells are arrested at a proerythroblast-like stage of development in the erythropoietic lineage7 and contain little or no globin mRNAs and no haemoglobin. In response to an inducer the cells start transcribing the globin genes, accumulate globin mRNAs and haemoglobin in the cytoplasm3,8 and express morphological and biochemical changes which parallel changes observed during normal in vivo erythropoiesis in the mouse. Dimethyl sulphoxide-induced Friend cells (strain 745 A) show a transient block in the initiation of DNA synthesis which precedes detectable expressions of the differentiated functions9. We report here a G1 phase prolongation in another Friend cell line using another inducer (n-butyrate). We have also characterised the induction process in respect of the capacity of the cells to synthesise and transport proteins to the nucleus. The rate of synthesis of total nuclear proteins decreases steadily but the histones show a reproducible pattern of an initial increase in this parameter at a time when DNA synthesis is blocked, indicating that histone synthesis becomes independent of DNA replication during Friend cell differentiation.

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  1. JORDANKA ZLATANOVA

    Present address: Institute for Molecular Biology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ernst Boehringer Institut für Arzneimittelforschung, A-1121, Vienna, Austria

    JORDANKA ZLATANOVA & PETER SWETLY

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  1. JORDANKA ZLATANOVA
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  2. PETER SWETLY
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ZLATANOVA, J., SWETLY, P. Uncoupled synthesis of histones and DNA during Friend cell differentiation. Nature 276, 276–277 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1038/276276a0

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