The microheterogeneity of the mammalian H1(0) histone. Evidence for an age-dependent deamidation.

Histone H1(0) is known to consist of two subfractions named H1(0)a and H1(0)b. The present work was performed with the aim of elucidating the nature of these two subfractions. By using reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography in combination with hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography, we fractionated human histone H1(0) into even four subfractions. Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatographic analysis of the peptide fragments obtained after cleavage with cyanogen bromide and digestion with chymotrypsin suggested that the four H1(0) subfractions differ only in their small N-terminal end of the H1(0) molecule (30 residues). Edman degradation of the N-terminal H1(0) peptide fragments and mass spectra analysis have indicated that human histone H1(0) consists of intact histones H1(0) (named H1(0) Asn-3) and deamidated H1(0) forms (H1(0) Asp-3) having an aspartic acid residue at position 3 instead of asparagine. Moreover, both H1(0) Asn-3 and H1(0) Asp-3 are blocked (H1(0)a Asn-3, H1(0)a Asp-3) and unblocked (H1(0)b Asn-3, H1(0)b Asp-3) on their N terminus. Acid-urea gel electrophoretic analysis has shown that the histone subfraction, in the literature originally named H1(0)a, actually consists of a mixture of H1(0)a Asn-3 and H1(0)a Asp-3, whereas H1(0)b consists of H1(0)b Asn-3 and H1(0)b Asp-3. Furthermore, we found that hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography separates rat and mouse histone H1(0) just like human H1(0) into four subfractions. Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatographic analysis of brain and liver histone H1(0) from rats of different ages revealed an age-dependent increase of both the N-terminally acetylated and the deamidated forms of H1(0). In addition, we found that the relative proportions of the four forms of H1(0) histones differ from tissue to tissue.