Preferential binding of phosphorylated histone H1 to AT-rich DNA

Studies on the isolated transcriptionally active and inactive chromatin fractions from rat liver nuclei

Using mild sonication, nucleoplasmic, nucleolar, and subnucleolar P-3 and S-3 chromatin fractions are isolated from rat liver nuclei. These fractions differ widely (over 80-fold) from each other in transcriptional activity as measured by the chromatin bound engaged RNA polymerases. Chemical analyses indicate that the active chromatin, e.g. P-3 and nucleolar fractions, are rich in RNA and protein as compared to the inactive chromatin, e.g. nucleoplasmic, and S-3 fractions. However, the DNA base content are all the same, showing 40% GC and 60% AT, including P-3 which is enriched in rDNA. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the 0.25 N HCl extracted proteins shows that all five histones are present in active chromatin. Additionally, the gel reveals two protein bands, one ahead of histone H2B and another ahead of histone H4, that are diminished or missing from the inactive chromatin. On the other hand, there is a fast moving protein band ahead of H4 in the inactive chromatin that is almost absent in the active chromatin. Transcriptional tests using E. coli RNA polymerase and several synthetic DNA templates of known base content and sequence indicate that the 0.25 N HCl soluble protein extracts from active chromatin contain activator proteins which are capable of countering the histone suppressors present in the extracts in a DNA base and sequence specific manner. The data show that although the histone suppressors are able to strongly inhibit the template function of poly[d(A-T)], the protein activators are able to overcome the suppressor activity and stimulate RNA synthesis several-fold when poly(dA).poly(dT) or poly(dT) is used.

Histone H1-DNA interactions and their relation to chromatin structure and function

The belief that histone H1 interacts primarily with DNA in chromatin and much less with the protein component has led to numerous studies of artificial H1-DNA complexes. This review summarizes and discusses the data on different aspects of the interaction between the linker histone and naked DNA, including cooperativity of binding, preference for supercoiled DNA, selectivity with respect to base composition and nucleotide sequence, and effect of H1 binding on the conformation of the underlying DNA. The nature of the interaction, the structure of the complexes, and the role histone H1 exerts in chromatin are also discussed.