High Energy Radiation-Induced Crosslinking of Histone Octamer Complexes

Abstract

Abstract Calf thymus histone octamer complexes were irradiated in the native state in N2O-saturated dilute aqueous solution (0.5 g/l, pH 9, [NaClO4] = 1-4 mol/1) with 50 or 100 ns pulses of 16 MeV electrons or 60Co-γ-rays. Tim e resolved light scattering measurem ents and optical ab­sorption measurements yielded the following: the octamers underwent a volume contraction due to intra-complex-crosslinking induced by the attack of OH-radicals. Crosslinking proceeded to a certain extent via 2 ,2′-biphenol coupling as inferred from product analyses.