Effect of sodium butyrate on the modification of histones in cell cultures of Nicotiana tabacum

Abstract A Ti plasmid transformed cell culture of Nicotiana tabacum (A6) was incubated with 5 mM sodium butyrate, a potent inhibitor of histone deacetylase, as evidenced with animal and human cell lines. The preparation of the nuclei, extraction of histones and their separation on urea-acrylamide-acetic acid gels revealed a histone H4 pattern which strongly resembles the acetylated pattern found with butyrate treated animal and human cell cultures. The pattern was not changed upon treatment with alkaline phosphatase and was also observed with a non-transformed phytohormone-dependent cell line of N. tabacum . These results suggest that both animal and plant histones are subjected to the same kind of modification, which may be related to gene regulation. However, the extent of acetylation of H4 observed in the present case seems to be lower than that e.g. found with HeLa cells.