A reevaluation of new histone deposition on replicating chromatin.

In this study, we have density-labeled newly replicated DNA in hepatoma tissue culture cells and separated the newly replicated nucleoprotein from bulk material using density gradient centrifugation. These experiments indicate that only newly synthesized histones H3 and H4 deposit specifically on newly replicated DNA. Histones H2A and H2B show a partial preference and histone H1 shows no preference for deposition on new DNA. These experiments also indicate that for a whole cell cycle, the non-H1 histones remain associated with the same DNA upon which they were initially deposited. However, when that region is replicated during the next cell cycle, the histones distribute equally to both daughter strands. An increase or decrease in the level of histone modification (acetylation) induced by sodium butyrate treatment does not alter the in vivo stability of the histone-DNA interactions. Experiments which involved labeling SV40 minichromosomes with [3H]lysine confirm our observations that only newly synthesized histone H3 and H4 are selectively depend on replicated DNA.