Reconstitution of chromatin: mode of reassociation of chromosomal proteins.

The mode of reassociation of Ehrlich ascites histones and non-histone proteins during chromatin reconstitution was studied by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacryl-amide gel electrophoresis. In the procedure of Bekhor et al. (I. Bekhor, G. M. Kung, and J. Bonner, (1969), J. Mol. Biol. 39, 351) most of histones and non-histone proteins reassociate with DNA in the last dialysis step of the dissociated chromatin, that is the dialysis of the chromatin in 0.4 M NaCl-5 M urea against a dilute buffer. The reassociation of histones and non-histone proteins with DNA is more gradual in the procedure of L. Kleiman and R.-C. C. Huang [(1972), J. Mol. Biol. 64, 1]. However, in both procedures the bulk of the Ehrlich ascites non-histone proteins reassociate with DNA after the binding of histones to DNA. There are small amounts of non-histone proteins which reassociate with DNA before and at the same time as histones reassociate with DNA.