Nucleic Acids Research, 1978, Vol. 5, No. 1 71-85
© 1978
Articles |
Proximity and accessibility studies of histones in nuclei and free nucleosomes
Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology, Developmental Therapeutics Program, Division of Cancer Treatment, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health Bethesda, MD 20014, USA
Received December 6, 1977. Histone proximity in chromatin was studied with the cleavable crosslinking reagent, dithiobissuccinimidyl propionate. Crosslink between H4 and H2a, H4 and H2b, H4 and H3, H2a and H2b, H2b and H3 were found. H1 is also crosslinked to the nucleosomal histones.
In nuclei, unsheared chromatin, and H1 depleted chromatin, the four nucleosomal histones are crosslinked at similar relative rates both in 5 mM salt and 100 mM salt. After micrococcal nuclease treatment to generate nucleosomes, H2a and H2b are crosslinked faster than H4 and H3. C14-NEM titration of thiopropionate residues bound to each histone shows that H2a and H2b are more accessible to this reagent after nuclease treatment but that the increased binding was not sufficient by itself to explain the increase in crosslinking.
Bolton Hunter reagent was used to further study the accessibility of the four nucleosomal histones in whole chromatin and nuclease digested chromatin. These studies showed that salt increases the accessibility of all four histones while nuclease treatment decreases H4 accessibility.