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Nucleic Acids Research, 1987, Vol. 15, No. 24 10569-10582
© 1987

Articles

Evolution of late H2A, H2B and H4 histone genes of the sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus

Robert Maxson*, Timothy Mohun$,1, Glen Gormezano1 and Larry Kedes1

Department of Biochemistry and Kenneth R.Norris Cancer Hospital and Research Institute, University of Southern California Medical School 2025 Zonal Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA 1Medigen Project, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine and Veterans Administration Hospital 3801 Miranda Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA

*To whom correspondence should be addressed

Received April 13, 1987. Revised August 18, 1987. Accepted August 18, 1987.

Sea urchins possess several distinct sets of histone genes, including "early" genes, maximally active in cleavage and blastula stages, and "late" genes, active from the late blastula stage onwards. We determined the nuceleotide sequences of six sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) late histone genes located on four genomic segments. Comparative analysis of these sequences identified several, conserved elements in 5' flanking regions, including the sequences ATGPyATANTATA shared by all late genes and GGCGGGAAATTGAAAA shared by two late H4s. Comparisons of protein-coding sequences of late H4 and H2B genes with their early counterparts showed that silent sites have diverged to the theoretical maximum, indicating that early and late histone gene classes diverged at least ZOO million years ago. Since extant echinoderms evolved from a common ancestor at about that time, it is likely that early and late histone gene sets are characteristic of all echinoderm groups. Amino acid sequences derived from nucleotide sequences of late H2A and H2B gistone genes differ substantially from amino acid sequences of their late counterparts. Most such differences are in highly mutable positions. A few, however, occur in positions that do not mutate frequently and thus may reflect functional differences between the early and late forms of the H2A and H2B proteins.

$Present address: CRC Molecular Embryology Group, Department of Zoology, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK


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[Abstract] [PDF]


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