Development of a platform for histone-code research by setting nucleosomes with various modifications

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25870186
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Bio-related chemistry; Molecular biology
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: HAYASHI Gosuke 東京大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究院), 助教 (40648268)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: ヒストン / エピジェネティクス / タンパク質化学合成 / Native Chemical Ligation / 翻訳後修飾

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We developed a chemical platform for approaching “histone code hypothesis”, that is one of the most important issues in epigenetics research. Total chemical synthesis of core histone H2A, H2B, and linker histone H1, all of which play essential roles in gene regulation and chromatin integrity, have been achieved by solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) and native chemical ligation (NCL). The chemically-synthesized histones showed comparable ability to form nucleosome and chromatosome in vitro. Furthermore, we introduced dye-labelled H2A into HeLa cells and observed that the synthetic histone protein successfully localized into nucleus.

Free Research Field

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