HISTONE-H1T - A TISSUE-SPECIFIC MODEL USED TO STUDY TRANSCRIPTIONAL CONTROL AND NUCLEAR FUNCTION DURING CELLULAR-DIFFERENTIATION

One of the most prominent and best studied family of genes is the hist one gene family. In recent years, histone gene regulation during the c ell cycle of somatic cells has been studied extensively. This paper is intended to highlight and emphasize recent data concerning the tissue -specific expression of histone H1t using spermatogenesis as a model s ystem. In this article we describe a unique DNA element within the pro ximal promoter of the histone H1t gene. This element has been shown to bind exclusively to nuclear proteins from pachytene spermatocytes and early spermatids. Thus, there is a strong temporal correlation betwee n the appearance of the testis-specific DNA-binding protein and the on set of transcription of the testis-specific histone H1t gene. (C) 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.