Structure of nucleohistone. I. Hydrodynamic behaviour.

Abstract

Abstract Partially dehistonized nucleohistone was prepared by a Sephadex G-100 gel filtration method and its hydrodynamic properties were examined by measuring its flow birefringence, flow dichroism and sedimentation coefficient. On association with histones the apparent length of DNA molecules decreased, and the number of base pairs perpendicular to the axis of the molecule decreased by 60 %. These configurational distortions were considered to be largely due to arginine-rich histones in the molecule. The heterogeneous components of histones were almost uniformly distributed throughout the molecular population of the nucleohistones.