M. Soto et al., MOLECULAR-CLONING AND ANALYSIS OF EXPRESSION OF THE LEISHMANIA-INFANTUM HISTONE H4 GENES, Molecular and biochemical parasitology, 90(2), 1997, pp. 439-447
In the present work, we describe the sequence, organization and expres
sion of histone H4 genes in the protozoan parasite Leishmania infantum
. The predicted L. infantum histone H4 is a polypeptide of 100 amino a
cids with a molecular mass of 11.5 kDa. Comparison of the amino acid s
equence of Leishmania histone H4 with the rest of histone H4 sequences
indicates that this is the most divergent sequence reported to date.
The genomic distribution analysis of histone H4 genes indicates that t
here must be up to seven gene copies. A single size-class histone H4 m
RNA of 0.6 kb was detected, whose level dramatically decreases from lo
garithmic to stationary phase. However, the Leishmania histone H4 mRNA
s do not decrease in abundance following treatment with inhibitors of
DNA synthesis,suggesting a regulation by a replication-independent mec
hanism. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.