A study on the heterogeneity of histone H1 from dry maize embryos

Maize dry embryo cells have been chosen as model for the study of H1 histone complement of metabolically inactive plant chromatin. H1 has been fractionated into two distinct bands in acetic acid/urea gels. Analysis of each of these bands in SDS-containing gels has shown that maize embryo H1 is heterogeneous, consisting of at least six proteins. Cross-reactivity of maize H1 species with antibodies against mouse liver total H1 and against its individual variants indicates that they share common immunological determinants but differ substantially from each other when compared by peptide mapping. It is concluded that a couple of the plant H1 subfractions are related to animal H1A histone and that another one is related to H1B histone. The other three maize H1 variants are closely related to each other and they also share common immunological determinants with mouse H1A, and possibly with H1B. All maize H1 species slightly cross-react with antibodies against H1 degree, suggesting that no one of the plant subfractions could be characterized as H1 degree in particular. One of the proteins co-extracted and comigrating with H1 is most probably an embryo storage protein.