Histone variants during development of follicular epithelial cells of silkmoths

Abstract 1. 1. The pattern of histone variants from the silkmoth Anthereae polyphemus was compared to the mouse and the Drosophila melanogaster histone variant patterns. 2. 2. The three silkmoths studied, Antheraea polyphemus , A. pernyi and Bombyx mori , have identical histone variant patterns. 3. 3. Comparison of the histones isolated from pre- and post-chorionating follicle cells of the three silkmoths studied showed no difference in their pattern. 4. 4. The structure of chromatin is the same in pre- and post-chorionating follicle cells as shown from digestion experiments of isolated nuclei with microbial nuclease. 5. 5. The distribution of histone variants in nucleosomes is the same for both stages of development. 6. 6. The H2A.Z variant is present in silkmoths and is electrophoretically similar to H2A.Z in mouse. Comparison of the iodinated tryptic peptides of H2A.Z from Bombyx mori and L1210 cells showed four iodinated peptides comigrating and at least three peptides with different mobilities. 7. 7. It is concluded that the histone variant pattern as well as the structure of chromatin do not change during the development of the silkmoth follicular epithelial cells.