Histones stimulate polyribonucleotide-directed polydeoxyribonucleotide synthesis by murine leukemia virus.

The rate of homoribopolymer-directed DNA synthesis by detergent-disrupted Moloney murine leukemia virus can be stimulated or inhibited by histone, depending on the ratio of histone to template. Of the fractions which can be separated from the whole histone, f1 causes both the greatest stimulation and the greatest inhibition. The effect of histone f1 is qualitatively similar whether the template is polyadenylate (poly A), polycytidylate, or polyuridylate, but the stimulation is greatest with poly A. The pattern of stimulation and inhibition differs, however, for a different polymerase; the DNA polymerase of Micrococcus luteus is inhibited by histone concentrations which stimulate the viral enzyme and stimulated by concentrations which inhibit the viral enzyme. For the viral enzyme, the optimum histone concentration is unaffected by changes in the virus or primer concentration; but it varies in proportion to the template concentration, suggesting that histone acts by combining stoichiometrically with the template. These data raise the possibility that a histone-like protein may participate in the synthesis of the provirus of RNA tumor viruses.