Protamines from liverwort are produced by post-translational cleavage and C-terminal di-aminopropanelation of several male germ-specific H1 histones.

ABSTRACT: Protamines are small, highly-specialized, arginine-rich, and intrinsically-disordered chromosomal proteins that replace histones during spermiogenesis in many organisms. Previous evidence supports the notion that, in the animal kingdom, these proteins have evolved from a primitive replication-independent histone H1 involved in terminal cell differentiation. Nevertheless, a direct connection between the two families of chromatin proteins is missing. Here, we primarily used electron transfer dissociation MS-based analyses, revealing that the protamines in the sperm of the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha result from post-translational cleavage of three precursor H1 histones. Moreover, we show that the mature protamines are further post-translationally modified by di-aminopropanelation,

SUBMITTER: D'Ippolito RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6827293 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature