The Fractionation of ?-Histones From Chicken Erythrocyte Nuclei

Abstract

Crude a-histone, obtained from the original histone complex by precipitation of the [beta]- and [gamma] -histones with ethanol, has been shown by starch gel-electrophoresis to contain 13 components. The fractionation of [alpha]-histone by exclusion chromatog-raphy on Sephadex G-200 is reported. While none of these components have been obtained pure in the present study, considerable purification of components 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, and 11 has been achieved, and their amino acid composition leaves no doubt that a-histones represent a much larger family of "lysine-rich" proteins than was hitherto supposed.