The primary structures and the evolutionary consequences of the olisthodiscus luteus histone proteins

During the course of this study, the histones of the algae Olisthodiscus luteus were isolated, purified and fractionated. Identification of the histones was achieved by partial primary structure analysis. The histones Hl, H2A, H2B, H3 and H4 were found to be present in the O. luteus nucleus. The complete structure of H2A and H4 was determined. There is no evidence of the existence of the unique histone HO1 (Rizzo et al., 1985). Construction of phylogenetic trees suggests that the alga Olisthodiscus luteus diverged from the animal line. By sequence comparison, the most closely related histone sequence to the algae was found to be that of the echinodermata. An endosymbiotic event between an echinodermata ancestor and a primitive unicellular alga is hypothesised in an attempt to explain the smilarity between the histones.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Molecular and Cell Biology

Year dc:date.issued

1993

Author dc:creator

• Spit, Anthony

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Brandt, Wolf F

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21498

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/21498