Nucleic Acids Research, 1981, Vol. 9, No. 15 3779-3791
© 1981
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY |
Nonhistone chromatin proteins HMG-14 and HMG-17 bind preferentially to single-stranded DNA
Department of Biochemistry, Kansas State University Manhattan, KS 66506, USA
Received May 27, 1981. Proteins extracted from chicken erythrocyte chromatin with 0.35 M NaCl were subjected to sequential chromatography on columns containing immobilized double-stranded and single-stranded DNA's. Two-dimensional electrophoresis of protein fractions revealed that HMG-14 and HMG-17 are among the proteins that are retained by the single-stranded DNA column in 0.2 M NaCl/1 mM Tris-Cl (pH 7.5) after having failed to be retained by the double-stranded column under the same conditions. That suggests that those two proteins possess preferential affinity for single-stranded DNA. Further evidence for that was provided by chromatography of purified HMG-14 and of purified HMG-17 on singlestranded and double-stranded DNA columns. We discuss the possible relevance of our results to suggested functions of HMG-14 and HMG-17.