title: A transient increase in histone H2A ubiquitination is coincident with the onset of erythroleukemic cell differentiation.
abstract: Murine erythroleukemia cells are useful for studying the regulation of erythroid differentiation since these malignant pronormoblasts differentiate to orthochromatic normoblasts when treated with a variety of inducing agents. Changes in chromatin proteins have been described following inducer exposure. The significance of these changes, which are greatest in terminally differentiated cells remains unknown. Ubiquitin is a highly conserved 8.5 kilodalton peptide that is covalently linked to up to 10% of histone H2A. We demonstrate that following exposure of MEL cells to inducers of differentiation, a transient increase in ubiquitination of H2A occurs. This change is coincident with the onset of differentiation. This result suggests that ubiquitination of H2A may have a role in the nuclear changes necessary for erythroleukemic cell differentiation.
authors.affiliation: Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.
authors.forename: J O
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: Hensold
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Swerdlow
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Housman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects; D002460:Cell Line; D004121:Dimethyl Sulfoxide / Q000494:pharmacology; D004920:Erythropoiesis / Q000187:drug effects; D006657:Histones / Q000378:metabolism*; D004915:Leukemia, Erythroblastic, Acute / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D051379:Mice; D014452:Ubiquitins / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D006657:Histones; D014452:Ubiquitins; D004121:Dimethyl Sulfoxide