Relationship of ultraviolet light-induced DNA-protein cross-linkage to chromatin structure

The production of banding patterns in metaphase chromosomes by restriction enzymes is inhibited by ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. Irradiation of fixed chromatin produces a 15-fold decrease in DNA extraction by restriction enzymes in comparison with that observed by irradiation before fixation. Alcohol-acid fixation of chromatin produces two major changes, the extraction of histones and dehydration. The effect of UV light is probably the result of a net increase in the yield of DNA-protein cross-links at comparable fluences of UV light and of the stabilization of the structural changes in the fixed chromatin fibril induced by the photoadducts. The X-irradiation of cells before fixation, as well as the rehydration of fixed chromatin, increases the extraction of DNA from fixed chromatin irradiated with UV light to levels similar to or even higher than those obtained with living cells. The effect of UV light before and after fixation on the extraction of DNA by restriction enzymes and proteinase K can be related to changes in chromatin structure and DNA conformation.