No abstract

The multigene family encoding the five classes of replication-dependent histones has been identified from the human and mouse genome sequence. The large cluster of histone genes, HIST1, on human chromosome 6 (6p21-p22) contains 55 histone genes, and Hist1 on mouse chromosome 13 contains 51 histone genes. There are two smaller clusters on human chromosome 1: HIST2 (at 1q21), which contains six genes, and HIST3 (at 1q42), which contains three histone genes. Orthologous Hist2 and Hist3 clusters are present on mouse chromosomes 3 and 11, respectively. The organization of the human and mouse histone genes in the HIST1 cluster is essentially identical. All of the histone H1 genes are in HIST1, which is spread over about 2 Mb. There are two large gaps (>250 kb each) within this cluster where there are no histone genes, but many other genes. Each of the histone genes encodes an mRNA that ends in a stemloop followed by a purine-rich region that is complementary to the 5' end of U7 snRNA. In addition to the histone genes on these clusters, only two other genes containing the stem-loop sequence were identified, a histone H4 gene on human chromosome 12 (mouse chromosome 6) and the previously described H2a.X gene located on human chromosome 11. Each of the 14 histone H4 genes encodes the same protein, and there are only three histone H3 proteins encoded by the 12 histone H3 genes in each species. In contrast, both the mouse and human H2a and H2b proteins consist of at least 10 non-allelic variants, making the complexity of the histone protein complement significantly greater than previously thought.

With rare exceptions, mRNAs whose synthesis originates within nuclei contain a 3Ј poly(A) tail. Poly(A) tracts are not encoded within genes but are added to nascent pre-mRNAs in a processing reaction that involves site-specific cleavage and subsequent polyadenylation (11,16,40,42). In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, newly synthesized poly(A) tails of different transcripts are relatively homogeneous, with their final lengths determined by the combined actions of poly(A) polymerase holoenzyme (Pap1p and Fip1p), poly(A)-binding protein (Pab1p), poly(A) nuclease (PAN), and the Pab1p-associated factor, Pbp1p (10,24,43).Poly(A) tracts are generally bound by Pab1p, a highly conserved protein with four RNA recognition motifs (RRMs) connected to a carboxy-terminal helical domain via a prolineand methionine-rich segment (25,31). Association of Pab1p with poly(A) requires a minimal binding site of 12 adenosines, and multiple molecules can bind via RRMs 1 and 2 to the same poly(A) tract, spaced approximately 25 nucleotides apart (1, 2, 31, 33). In yeast, the relatively abundant 70-kDa poly(A)-binding protein is encoded by the PAB1 gene. Mutations in PAB1 cause a significant increase in the average steady-state poly(A) tail length of total cellular mRNA (32), and these effects have been attributed to two apparently nuclear functions of Pab1p: the regulation of a switch between processive and distributive activities in poly(A) polymerase (43) and the stimulation of PAN activity (7, 9, 21).Yeast poly(A) tails are initially synthesized to default lengths of 70 to 90 A's and then trimmed to mRNA-specific lengths by PAN. Analyses of three different mRNAs indicate that such trimmed tails have lengths ranging from 55 to 71 A's (8). PAN, a Pab1p-dependent 3Ј to 5Ј poly(A) exoribonuclease, requires magnesium, releases AMP as a product, and is regulated by cis-acting mRNA sequences (21). Purified PAN contains two proteins which are essential for nuclease activity: Pan2p is a 127-kDa protein with homology to the RNase T family of 3Ј35Ј exoribonucleases, while Pan3p is a 76-kDa protein which apparently acts as a positive activator of PAN activity (8). Deletion of PAN2 and/or PAN3 eliminates poly(A) nuclease activity but does not hinder cell growth. Physical interaction between Pan2p and Pan3p has been inferred from coimmunoprecipitation and two-hybrid analyses of the full-length proteins (9).Pbp1p (Pab1p-binding protein 1) specifically interacts with a 74-amino-acid segment encompassing the proline-and methionine-rich domain of the Pab1p C terminus. PBP1 is not essential for viability, but its disruption can suppress the lethality associated with a PAB1 deletion (23). In the absence of Pbp1p, 3Ј termini of pre-mRNAs are properly cleaved but receive poly(A) tails that are, on average, 15 to 30 nucleotides shorter than normal (23,25). In vitro polyadenylation reactions using extracts from wild-type and pbp1⌬ strains demonstrated that the mutant extracts initially produced full-length tails equivalent to their wild-type counterparts but subseque...