Polyamines inhibit the yeast histone deacetylase.

n-Butyrate inhibits the histone deacetylase from higher cells, but has little effect on the enzyme activity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Spermine and spermidine were therefore tested as potential yeast deacetylase inhibitors and found to inhibit fully the enzyme at 2 and 5 mM, respectively. The utility of these inhibitors was demonstrated by showing that 2 mM spermine substantially increased the incorporation of [3H]acetate into histone in a yeast nuclear acetyltransferase assay.