The fractionation of histones by electrophoresis in polyacrylamide gel

Increased interest in histone fractionation is evidenced by the many published electrophoretic techniques using starch (1–3) and polyacrylamide (4–6) gels. Twenty-two components of calf thymus histone have been identified by Neelin and Neelin (7) with starch gel electrophoresis. Driedger et al. (5) have obtained 18 histone bands by acrylamide gel electrophoresis and even more by sequential polyacrylamide and starch gel electrophoresis. However, fractionation of the total histone by various electrophoretic techniques often fails to give distinct resolution of bands, possible due to the complexity of the patterns obtained. In addition, present methods involve extensive or elaborate preparation, e.g., starch gels prepared in 7 M urea are difficult to manipulate (7); polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis requires washing and soaking the gel for several days before use (5). This paper describes an electrophoretic method which fractionates histone into a number of discrete bands. The technique, in addition to offering good resolution of fractions, eliminates the necessity for elaborate gel preparation and handling. Especially good separations of the arginine-rich histones have been obtained.