CHAMPAIGN, Ill., May 23 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers have created a method of identifying all modifications of histones -- the proteins around which DNA is packed.
The University of Illinois study is expected to provide researchers with a better understanding of how genes are regulated by alterations to such proteins.
DNA holds the information for the building blocks of life but how a cell reads that genetic information depends on histones -- specifically on modifications to the histones. Scientists call the combinatorial use of histone modifications the "histone code," but the extent to which different modifications are combined in the histone code is still unknown.
To help crack the code, Neil Kelleher and colleagues used a mass spectrometry technique known as "top down," in which intact proteins are fragmented in the mass spectrometer, providing better preservation of modifications than does traditional mass spectrometry methods looking at pre-digested proteins. For one particular histone, the researchers found more than 150 different patterns of modification.
The research is detailed in the online edition of the journal Nature Methods.
