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PMID: 9032246 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

The five cleavage-stage (CS) histones of the sea urchin are encoded by a maternally expressed family of replacement histone genes: functional equivalence of the CS H1 and frog H1M (B4) proteins.

Molecular and cellular biology ·Vol. 17 ·No. 3 ·1997-03-00 ·Pages 1189-200

Mandl B, Brandt WF, Superti-Furga G, Graninger PG, Birnstiel ML, Busslinger M

Abstract

The cleavage-stage (CS) histones of the sea urchin are known to be maternally expressed in the egg, have been implicated in chromatin remodeling of the male pronucleus following fertilization, and are the only histone variants present in embryonic chromatin up to the four-cell stage. With the help of partial peptide sequence information, we have isolated and identified CS H1, H2A, H2B, H3, and H4 cDNAs from egg poly(A)+ mRNA of the sea urchin Psammechinus miliaris. All five CS proteins correspond to replacement histone variants which are encoded by replication-independent genes containing introns, poly(A) addition signals, and long nontranslated sequences. Transcripts of the CS histone genes could be detected only during oogenesis and in development up to the early blastula stage. The CS proteins, with the exception of H4, are unique histones which are distantly related in sequence to the early, late, and sperm histone subtypes of the sea urchin. In contrast, the CS H1 protein displays highest sequence homology with the H1M (B4) histone of Xenopus laevis. Both H1 proteins are replacement histone variants with very similar developmental expression profiles in their respective species, thus indicating that the frog H1M (B4) gene is a vertebrate homolog of the CS H1 gene. These data furthermore suggest that the CS histones are of ancient evolutionary origin and may perform similar conserved functions during oogenesis and early development in different species.

MeSH Terms
Amino Acid Sequence Animals Base Sequence DNA, Complementary/genetics Egg Proteins/genetics Embryo, Nonmammalian/chemistry Female Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental Genes/genetics Genetic Variation Histones/analysis,genetics Male Molecular Sequence Data Multigene Family/genetics Oogenesis RNA, Messenger/genetics Sea Urchins/embryology,genetics Sequence Homology, Amino Acid Xenopus laevis/embryology,genetics
Chemicals
DNA, Complementary Egg Proteins Histones RNA, Messenger
Authors & Affiliations
6 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Mandl B
Research Institute of Molecular Pathology, Vienna, Austria.
Brandt W F
Superti-Furga G
Graninger P G
Birnstiel M L
Busslinger M
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Article Info
Journal
Molecular and cellular biology
Abbr.
Mol Cell Biol
ISSN
0270-7306
DOI
10.1128/MCB.17.3.1189
Published
1997-03-00
Pages
1189-200
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
8109087
PMCID
PMC231844
Subset
IM
Databases
GENBANK
U84113, U84114, U84115, U84116, U84117
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1128/MCB.17.3.1189 PMC Full Text View journal details
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