Non-histone chromosomal proteins. Their isolation and role in determining specificity of transcription in vitro

We describe a method for fractionation of chromatin components by selective dissociation with salt in buffers containing 5 M urea in combination with cromatography on hydroxyapatite at 4 degrees C. This results in two histone and four non-histone fractions which are recovered in high yield and with minimal proteolytic contamination. Template capacity measurements of the isolated chromatins and pre-saturation competition hybridization experiments support the idea that a group of non-histone proteins activate the transcription of specific DNA sequences which were not transcribed from purified DNA to the same extent. In reconstitution experiments a non-histone protein fraction, NH4, prepared from lymphocyte chromatin by hydroxyapatite chromatography is shown to cause transcription in vitro of lymphocyte-specific RNA sequences. A subfraction with a molecular weight of 30 000 comprising 40% of the NH4 fraction protein is characteristic for this tissue and not found in liver chromatin.