An important hallmark of systemic lupus erythematosus is the production of autoantibodies specific for nuclear Ags, among which nucleosomes and their constituents, DNA and histones. It is widely admitted that some of these autoantibodies contribute largely in lupus pathogenesis because of their nephritogenic potential. However, the underlying mechanisms are still debated. In this study, we anal...

H2AZ is a widely conserved histone variant that is implicated in protecting euchromatin from the spread of heterochromatin. H2AZ is incorporated into nucleosomes as a heterodimer with H2B, by the SWR1 ATP-dependent chromatin-remodeling complex. We have identified a homolog of H2AZ in the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma brucei, along with a novel variant of histone H2B (H2BV) that shares approxim...

The incorporation of newly synthesized histones among various chromatin fraction isolated from non-replicating cell-cycle-phase-Go chicken immature erythrocytes was investigated. We find that newly synthesized erythroid-specific histone Hl variant H5, is incorporated randomly into chromatin. In contrast, newly synthesized nucleosomal histones H2A, H2A.Z, H2B, H3.3, and H4 are preferentially fou...

A protein kinase which phosphorylated histone and protamine was partially purified from bovine cerebellum. Casein and phosvitin were inert as substrates. The enzyme did not require any cyclic nucleotide. A sulfhydryl compound such as 2-mercaptoethanol, glutathione, or cysteine was necessary for the reaction. The optimum pH was 8.5 to 9.0 Km values for ATP and whole histone were 3.3 X 10(-6) M a...

Three heat-induced genes of the infective-stage larvae of Trichinella spiralis were successfully identified by the suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) technique. As indicated by reverse Northern blotting, 19 of 25 clones were scored as differentially transcribed in the heat-shocked infective-stage larvae. The sequencing data showed the presence of 12 different genes. Three were homologo...

Using a comprehensive library of histone H2A and H2B mutants, we assessed the biological function of each amino acid residue involved in various stress conditions including exposure to different DNA damage-inducing reagents, different growth temperatures, and other chemicals. H2B N- and H2A C-termini were critical for maintaining nucleosome function and mutations in these regions led to pleiotr...

FACT (facilitates chromatin transcription) is a histone chaperone that promotes chromatin recovery during transcription, with additional roles in cell differentiation. Although several models of the action of FACT during transcription have been proposed, they remain to be experimentally evaluated. Here we show that human FACT (hFACT) facilitates transcription through chromatin and promotes nucl...

Crystals of native histone octamers (H2A-H2B)-(H4-H3)-(H3'-H4')-(H2B'-H2A') from chick erythrocytes in 2 M KCl, 1.35 M potassium phosphate pH 6.9 diffract X-rays to 1.90 A resolution, yielding a structure with an R(work) value of 18.7% and an Rfree of 22.2%. The crystal space group is P6(5), the asymmetric unit of which contains one complete octamer. This high-resolution model of the histone-co...

Histone variant H2A.Z-containing nucleosomes are incorporated at most eukaryotic promoters. This incorporation is mediated by the conserved SWR1 complex, which replaces histone H2A in canonical nucleosomes with H2A.Z in an ATP-dependent manner. Here, we show that promoter-proximal nucleosomes are highly heterogeneous for H2A.Z in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, with substantial representation of nucl...

Ubiquitylation of histone H2B at lysine 120 (H2B-Ub) plays a critical role in transcriptional elongation, chromatin conformation, as well as the regulation of specific histone H3 methylations. Herein, we report a strategy for the site-specific chemical attachment of ubiquitin to preassembled nucleosomes. This allowed expedited structure-activity studies into how H2B-Ub regulates H3K79 methylati...