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Slaying the last unicorn - discovery of histones in the microalga Nanochlorum eucaryotum

Valerie WC Soo, View ORCID ProfileTobias Warnecke
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.22.350256
Valerie WC Soo
1Medical Research Council London Institute of Medical Sciences, London, United Kingdom
2Institute of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
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Tobias Warnecke
1Medical Research Council London Institute of Medical Sciences, London, United Kingdom
2Institute of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
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  • ORCID record for Tobias Warnecke
  • For correspondence: tobias.warnecke@lms.mrc.ac.uk
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ABSTRACT

Histones are the principal constituents of eukaryotic chromatin. The four core histones (H2A, H2B, H3, and H4) are conserved across sequenced eukaryotic genomes and therefore thought to be universal to eukaryotes. In the early 1980s, however, a series of biochemical investigations failed to find evidence for histones or nucleosomal structures in the microscopic green alga Nanochlorum eucaryotum. If true, derived histone loss in this lineage would constitute an exceptional case that might help us further understand the principles governing eukaryotic gene regulation. To substantiate these earlier reports of histone loss in N. eucaryotum, we sequenced, assembled and quantified its transcriptome. Following a systematic search for histone-fold domains in the assembled transcriptome, we detect orthologs to all four core histones. We also find histone mRNAs to be highly expressed, comparable to the situation in other eukaryotes. Finally, we obtain characteristic protection patterns when N. eucaryotum chromatin is subjected to micrococcal nuclease digestion, indicating widespread formation of nucleosomal complexes in vivo. We conclude that previous reports of missing histones in N. eucaryotum were mistaken. By all indications, N. eucaryotum has histone-based chromatin characteristic of most eukaryotes.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted October 22, 2020.
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Slaying the last unicorn - discovery of histones in the microalga Nanochlorum eucaryotum
Valerie WC Soo, Tobias Warnecke
bioRxiv 2020.10.22.350256; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.22.350256
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Slaying the last unicorn - discovery of histones in the microalga Nanochlorum eucaryotum
Valerie WC Soo, Tobias Warnecke
bioRxiv 2020.10.22.350256; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.22.350256

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