Characterization of dna-bound histone in the cells of the avian erythropoietic series

The distribution of DNA-bound histone from purified cell populations of the avian erythroid cell series was studied to examine the possible relationship between these molecules and the in vivo activity of cells. High-resolution polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of histones indicated that the 3 main cell types, namely, erythrocytes (inactive in macromolecular synthesis), polychromatic erythrocytes (active in RNA and protein synthesis) and erythroblasts (dividing cells) all contained the same histone components. This result is contrary to previous reports that the f2c histone (characteristic of avian erythroid cells) was absent from erythroblasts; in addition it does not support the proposition that dividing cells contain a unique f1 histone component. Quantitation of histone analyses showed that erythroblasts contain relatively less f2c histone than the non-dividing cells of the series and that there was a slight redistribution of f1 histone components between polychromatic and mature erythrocytes.