Initiation of histone synthesis by f-met-tRNAf in an ascites cell-free system.

Formyl-[(35)S]methionine is incorporated into histones synthesized by a mouse ascites cell-free system supplemented with histone mRNA and f-[(35)S]met-tRNAf from yeast. Most of the [(35)S]methionine incorporated can be shown to be at the N-terminus by Edman degradation after deformylation. This indicates that methionine can be used as the initiator amino acid for histones in this cell-free system.