Embryonic stage-related properties of sea urchin embryo chromatin

Two chromatin components, obtained by buoyant density centrifugation of the unsheared blastula and gastrula chromatin of a sucrose/glucose gradient, have been comparatively characterized. When compared to the heavy fraction the light fraction (i) represents a far smaller part of chromatin, (ii) contains a higher RNA/DNA mass ratio and a higher proportion of newly synthesized nonhistone proteins and (iii) possesses greater template activity for RNA synthesis. Gastrulation of the embryos was found to render the dense chromatin fraction less compact and both chromatin subpopulations more transcriptable and enriched with newly synthesized non-histone proteins.