The nonhistone proteins of developing mammalian erythroid cells

Anaemic rabbit bone marrow cells, labelled with [35S]methionine, were separated at unit gravity. Chromatin was isolated from these cells and proteins were separated from DNA, using urea/salt extraction. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis of the nonhistone proteins showed that these proteins appeared to change quantitatively but not qualitatively, with one important exception, as cell development proceeded. The one protein that did change had a molecular weight of approximately 20,000 and was very basic. This protein was synthesised at low levels in the early cells, but its synthesis was seen to increase at the polychromatic stage of cell development, just prior to nuclear condensation. Treatment of bone marrow cells with sodium butyrate was shown to increase the synthesis of this protein in the early cells.