Sites of histone/histone interaction in the H3 - H4 complex

Sites of interaction between histones H3 and h4 have been probed by investigating complex formation, firstly between histone H4 and three peptides cleaved by chemical means from histone H3 (residues 1-90 and 1-120 using cyanogen bromide and residues 42-135 using N-bromosuccinimide), secondly between histone H3 and two peptides cleaved from histone H4 (residues 1 - 84 using cyanogen bromide and residues 38-102 using chymotrypsin) and thirdly between the H4 peptide (residues 38-102) and the three H3 peptides (residues 1-90, 1-120 and 42-135). The criterion for complex formation is the appearance of characteristic perturbed resonances in the aromatic region of the 270 - MHZ proton resonance spectrum of the peptide mixture. It is concluded that loss of 37 N-terminal residues from histone H4 and 41 N-terminal residues from histone H3 does not prevent complex formation, whilst the loss of 18 C-terminal residues from H4 and 45 C-terminal residues from H3 does prevent it; that last 15 C-terminal residues of H3 are, however, not required for forming a complex. The regions important for complex formation are therefore defined as residues 42-120 in histone H3 and residues 38-102 in histone H4.