Mouse sperm chromatin proteins: quantitative isolation and partial characterization.

Conditions are described that permit the quantitative extraction of chromatin proteins from the epididymal sperm of the mouse. These proteins have been isolated free of contaminating tail proteins following removal of the tails with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). Without this treatment, numerous acid-soluble tail proteins coextract with the nuclear proteins isolated from partially purified heads. The proteins isolated in this manner do not require prior modification with iodoacetamide and show no evidence of proteolytic degradation. In acid-urea polyacrylamide gels, 99% of the sperm protein migrates as one electrophoretic band. Evidence is presented that suggests that this single band contains two protamine-like proteins.