The fractionation of arginine-rich histones from fetal calf thymus by exclusion chromatography.

The arginine-rich histone complex from fetal calf thymus was found to contain 12 or more histone components by electrophoretic analysis on polyacrylamide gels. The arginine-rich histone complex was resolved into five distinct peaks b,y exclusion chromatography on Sephadex G-100 columns 300 cm in height and 7.6 cm in diameter, with 0.01 M HCl as the eluent. Of the five peaks obtained, two (Peaks 3 and 5) contained arginine-rich histone fractions. Peak 4 contained slightly lysine-rich histones. In Peaks 1 and 2, the arginine and lysine contents were almost equal. The last peak (Peak 5) contained a glycine-rich, arginine-rich histone in high purity as evidenced by electrophoretic homogeneity and peptide mapping.