The syntheses of deoxyribonucleic acid and histone in the onion root meristem.

A comparison of the times necessary to incorporate tritium-labeled lysine and arginine into histones and tritium-labeled thymidine into DNA indicates that the periods of DNA and histone synthesis prior to division closely coincide. (The comparison was made by determining the times necessary, after pulse labeling, for cells with marked chromosomes to enter and then leave the division stages.) An additional period of chromosomal protein synthesis, of short duration, occurs late in interphase. Most of the chromosomal proteins appear either to be synthesized in the nucleus or to migrate there shortly after synthesis. Much of this protein is conserved from one division to the next. Studies of the effects of puromycin and fluorodeoxyuridine on the syntheses of DNA and histone suggest that continuation of DNA synthesis is dependent on a concurrent protein synthesis. Histone synthesis, on the other hand, can proceed at a normal rate under conditions in which DNA synthesis is inhibited.