Agnieszka Zaleszczyk, Dorota Bartusik-Aebisher and David Aebisher
Medical College of The University of Rzeszów, Rzeszów, Poland

Part of the book: The Biochemical Guide to Proteins

Abstract

Histones are proteins with many functions, but the most important are those that build DNA. Histones are proteins with a small molecular weight: 11.3-21.0 kDa. They are rich in basic amino acids, mainly arginine and lysine. They are also water-soluble proteins. There are also many tissue-specific variants of histones, especially in the case of linker histone, for example CenH3 – responsible for the organization of centromeres and kinetochores, H3.3 increases transcription activity, H2A.X – facilitates repair and recombination of DNA. Histones constitute 25-40% of the chromatin mass.

Keywords: histones, drug-induced lupus, proteins, DNA, lysine

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