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Histone H1 is located in the interior of the chromatin 30-nm filament

Nature volume 368, pages 351–354 (1994)Cite this article

Abstract

THE linker histone H1 binds to the nucleosome and is essential for the organization of nucleosomes into the 30-nm filament of chromatin1. It has been implicated in the repression of transcription2–5, and phosphorylation of H1 may be involved in cell-cycle-dependent chromatin condensation and decondensation6. A long-standing issue concerns the location of H1 in the chromatin filament7. The original solenoidal model8 proposes that H1 is inside the 30-nm filament, but other models, also helical, suggest a variable9 or more accessible10 location for H1. Investigations to determine the location of the linker histone based on its access-ibility to antibodies11–15 or immobilized proteases16 under various ionic conditions have yielded conflicting results. Here we use neutron scattering in a direct structural determination to show that H1 is located in the interior of the filament.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biology Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York, 11973, USA

    V. Graziano, S. E. Gerchman, D. K. Schneider & V. Ramakrishnan

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  1. V. Graziano
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  2. S. E. Gerchman
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  3. D. K. Schneider
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  4. V. Ramakrishnan
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Graziano, V., Gerchman, S., Schneider, D. et al. Histone H1 is located in the interior of the chromatin 30-nm filament. Nature 368, 351–354 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1038/368351a0

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