Purification of the centromere-specific protein CENP-A and demonstration that it is a distinctive histone.
CENP-A, a centromere-specific 17-kDa protein, has histone-like properties. However, in contrast to the common somatic histones, CENP-A is quantitatively retained in bull spermatozoa, and we have exploited this fact to purify CENP-A to apparent homogeneity. Partial sequence analysis of the purified protein indicates that CENP-A is a distinctive gene product. Some CENP-A sequences are highly similar to regions of histone H3. Other segments of CENP-A are not related to H3 or any other histone. These unrelated segments are presumably involved in localizing CENP-A to centromeric DNA or in centromere-specific functions of CENP-A.
Palmer
D K
DK
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98104.
O'Day
K
K
Trong
H L
HL
Charbonneau
H
H
Margolis
R L
RL
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001324:Autoantigens; D002417:Cattle; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000737:chemistry; D002503:Centromere / Q000737:chemistry*; D000076247:Centromere Protein A; D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006657:Histones / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D008970:Molecular Weight; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D010449:Peptide Mapping; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000737:chemistry
D001324:Autoantigens; D000076247:Centromere Protein A; D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone; D006657:Histones; D009687:Nuclear Proteins