The plastid genome of Cryptomonas phi, a cryptomonad alga, contains three genes that have not previously been found in any organellar genome. Each of these genes encodes a functional class of organellar gene product not previously reported. The first gene, dnaK, encodes a polypeptide of the hsp70 heat shock protein family. The predicted amino acid sequence of the DnaK protein is 54% identical t...

PRMTs (protein arginine N-methyltransferases) specifically modify the arginine residues of key cellular and nuclear proteins as well as histone substrates. Like lysine methylation, transcriptional repression or activation is dependent upon the site and type of arginine methylation on histone tails. Recent discoveries imply that histone arginine methylation is an important modulator of dynamic c...

Switchgrass is one of the most promising energy crops and only recently has been employed for biofuel production. The draft genome of switchgrass was recently released; however, relatively few switchgrass genes have been functionally characterized. CENH3, the major histone protein found in centromeres, along with canonical H3 and other histones, plays an important role in maintaining genome sta...

Centromeres of most organisms are embedded within constitutive heterochromatin, the condensed regions of chromosomes that account for a large fraction of complex genomes. The functional significance of this centromere-heterochromatin relationship, if any, is unknown. One possibility is that heterochromatin provides a suitable environment for assembly of centromere components, such as special ce...

In higher organisms, the chromatin of sperm is organised in a highly condensed protamine-based structure. In pre-meiotic stages and shortly after meiosis, histones carry multiple modifications. Here, we focus on post-meiotic stages and show that also after meiosis, histone H3 shows a high overall methylation of K9 and K27 and we hypothesise that these modifications ensure maintenance of transcr...

The presence of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH)-like protein has been previously demonstrated in the bovine folicle. This GnRH-like protein was purified and concluded to be histone H2A. However. neither GnRH peptide nor specific GnRH-immunoreactivity (GnRH IR) has been demonstrated in the bovine folicIe 50 far. Thus. this study focused 00 the detection of specific GnRH-IR using the second...

EWSR1, a protein whose role in meiosis was not previously clarified detail, binds to both the recombination regulator PRDM9 and phosphorylated meiosis-specific cohesin pREC8 male meiotic cells is essential for promoting PRDM9-dependent histone methylation normal progress.

In this study the nature of chromosomal proteins, his tones and nonhistone in resident alveolar macrophages was investigated in comparison to peritoneal neutrophils and calf thymus proteins. Cells were obtained by lavaging the lung and after purity determination they were subjected to fractional extraction procedures. Proteins were then analysed on SDS polyacrylamide gels and densitometric...

The important role of histone posttranslational modifications, particularly methylation and acetylation, in Plasmodium falciparum gene regulation has been established. However, the role of histone phosphorylation remains understudied. Here, we investigate histone phosphorylation utilizing liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry to analyze histones extracted from asexual blood stages ...