In vivo, histone H1 plays an active role in establishing the transcriptionally repressed chromatin state of the oocyte-type 5S RNA genes in the early stages of Xenopus development. By using fully defined in vitro system of chromatin assembly on plasmids with cloned oocyte- or somatic-type 5S gene repeats we found that the oocyte repeat which comprises a 120 bp oocyte-type 5S RNA gene placed wit...

The tip adhesin FasG of the 987P fimbriae of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli mediates two distinct adhesive interactions with brush border molecules of the intestinal epithelial cells of neonatal piglets. First, FasG attaches strongly to sulfatide with hydroxylated fatty acyl chains. This interaction involves lysine 117 and other lysine residues of FasG. Second, FasG recognizes specific intest...

Sperm nuclear basic proteins (SNBPs) can be grouped into three main categories: histone (H) type, protamine (P) type, and protamine-like (PL) type. Protamine-like SNBPs represent the most structurally heterogeneous group, consisting of basic proteins which are rich in both lysine and arginine amino acids. The PL proteins replace most of the histones during spermiogenesis but to a lesser extent ...

To investigate the specificity, sensitivity, and concomitant presence of antibodies against histones (H), histone H1 (H1), and histone H3 (H3) in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and analyze their association with SLE. Serum IgG anti-histones antibodies were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 144 SLE patients consisting of 24 neuropsychiatric lupus (NPSLE), 65 lupu...

Engagement of integrin cell adhesion receptors in mouse lung endothelial cells induces global sensitivity of DNA to nuclease digestion, reflecting alterations in chromatin structure. These structural changes may contribute to the antigenotoxic effects of integrin engagement in lung endothelium. Because histone acetylation and poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation modulate chromatin structure, we investigated ...

Homologous recombination plays essential roles in mitotic DNA double strand break (DSB) repair and meiotic genetic recombination. In eukaryotes, RAD51 promotes the central homologous-pairing step during homologous recombination, but is not sufficient to overcome the reaction barrier imposed by nucleosomes. RAD54, a member of the ATP-dependent nucleosome remodeling factor family, is required to ...

The synthesis of core histone variants and of histone H1 variants was determined in fresh leukemic cells of eight patients with leukemia [seven acute lymphoblastic (ALL) and one chronic lymphocytic (CLL)], in normal lymphocytes from healthy donors or from ALL patients in complete remission. Histone variant synthesis was evaluated by incubating cells with [14C]Lys and [3H]Arg in medium without L...

Histone H1 binds to linker DNA between nucleosomes, but the dynamics and biological ramifications of this interaction remain poorly understood. We performed single-molecule experiments using magnetic tweezers to determine the effects of H1 on naked DNA in buffer or during chromatin assembly in Xenopus egg extracts. In buffer, nanomolar concentrations of H1 induce bending and looping of naked DN...

A protein showing lower electrophoretic mobility in acidic urea polyacrylamide gels than did the usual histone H1 subfractions has been detected among the H1 histones extracted from chromatin of a transplantable hamster hepatoma, originally induced by Kirkman and Robbins. It was proved to be a true H1 histone subfraction. It differs from the remaining ones by the total chain length, amino acid ...

NASP (nuclear autoantigenic sperm protein) has been reported to be an H1-specific histone chaperone. However, NASP shares a high degree of sequence similarity with the N1/N2 family of proteins, whose members are H3/H4-specific histone chaperones. To resolve this paradox, we have performed a detailed and quantitative analysis of the binding specificity of human NASP. Our results confirm that NAS...