Affinity chromatography of cysteine-containing histone.

Affinity chromatography based on the reaction between SH groups in protein and +HgC6H4CO groups in the p-mercuribenzoylaminoethyl derivative of Sepharose 4B was examined with a crude preparation of calf thymus cysteine-containing histone. Adsorption of the histone onto the column by specific coupling was found to be optimal in 0.1 M citrate buffer, pH 5.5, containing 5M urea to prevent any aggregation of histones and their non-specific adsorption onto the column, and elution from the column was successfully performed by cleavage of the resulting S-Hg bond with urea-buffer solution containing 0.05 M 2-mercaptoethanol. Under these conditions both the adsorption and elution were quantitative; no adsorption was observed when either SH-blocked histone or unsubstituted Sepharose was used. The cysteine-containing histone thus recovered, after further purification by Bio-Gel P-60 chromatography to remove some cysteine-containing nonhistone proteins contaminating the starting material, showed a single band on polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and an amino acid composition agreeing with the known sequence of this histone.