Identification of some peptides from an arginine-rich histone and their bearing on the structure of deoxyribonucleohistone

Some researches on histones

The histone extracted from calf thymus glands is a complex system of proteins, which can be fractionated by chromatography on carboxymethyl cellulose columns into three principal fractions (1) very lysine-rich, (2) moderately lysine-rich, (3) arginine-rich. When examined by starch gel chromatography each of these gives more than one band. Methods have been devised for further separation of the components in some cases. The components show characteristic differences in end groups and certain amino acids as well as in their basic character. Histones extracted from various rat tissues can be separated into similar fractions, of which the amino acid analyses are similar to those derived from calf thymus, within the experimental error. To this extent, no species or tissue specificity of the fractionated histones was observed. Although all the histone fractions contain approximately one basic amino acid to three non-basic amino acids their structure is not regular, as Phillips has shown that in certain fractions the number of non-basic groups between two basic groups may vary from 0 to seven or more. The possible functions of histones are discussed.

A FRACTIONATION OF THE HISTONES OF GROUP F2A FROM CALF THYMUS

1. The calf-thymus histone group F2a has been separated into two subfractions by stepwise precipitation with acetone from acid solution. 2. Carboxymethyl-cellulose and dextran-gel column chromatography and a method involving dialysis against ethanol have also given the subfractions, but the acetone-hydrochloric acid method has proved to be the most practicable. 3. The two subfractions differ significantly in their amino acid composition and in the pattern of peptides obtained by tryptic digestion. Both fractions have a very low content of N-terminal amino acids and contain acetyl groups.

Some physical and chemical properties of trypsin-digested nucleoprotein

A DNA-peptide complex that is soluble in 0.2m-sodium chloride can be prepared by trypsin digestion of calf thymus nucleoprotein. The trypsin-digested nucleoprotein molecule contains about 70% of DNA and 30% of peptides by weight, and consists of one DNA molecule associated with arginine-rich peptides. A series of trypsin-digested nucleoprotein preparations differing only in molecular weight were prepared by blending. The intrinsic viscosity and average sedimentation coefficient were determined for each of these preparations. Then the DNA was isolated from each preparation and the hydrodynamic measurements were repeated on the DNA. From a comparison of these results it was concluded that the presence of the complex-forming peptides causes a large decrease in intrinsic viscosity of the DNA and an increase in sedimentation coefficient. In addition, the hydrodynamic data indicate that the DNA-peptide complex behaves like a coil in solution but is more compact than the same length of DNA. The ;melting' profiles, streptomycin precipitation curves and maximum viscosities obtained with ethidium bromide binding for the trypsin-digested nucleoprotein are similar to those of purified DNA, and markedly different from those of undigested nucleoprotein. These findings suggest that the peptides are not strongly associated with the DNA, and that secondary valency forces are involved in the binding.

Cysteine in calf-thymus histones

1. Calf-thymus histones contain cysteine, which is present almost entirely in the arginine-rich fraction F3 to the extent of about 1mole in 15000g. weight of the histone. 2. The cysteine in fraction F3 is readily available to thiol reagents and the protein yields an approximately equivalent amount of cysteic acid on oxidation with performic acid.