ARCHAEAL DNA-BINDING PROTEINS AND CHROMOSOME STRUCTURE

Small, basic, abundant DNA-binding proteins have been isolated from ma ny different prokaryotes. Proteins of this type that have been charact erized from Archaea are reviewed here, and their structural and functi onal relationships to bacterial histone-like proteins and eukaryal his tones are discussed. Members of the HMf family of archaeal DNA-binding proteins are considered most similar to eukaryal histones and it is p roposed that in Methanothermus fervidus cells, which normally contain a high internal salt concentration and grow at temperatures above 80 d egrees C, that HMf both compacts the genomic DNA and facilitates its r eplication and expression.