Chicken reticulocyte nuclear antigen: its identification and relation to transcriptive activity in erythropoietic cells.

Antibodies to chicken reticulocyte dehistonized chromatin were produced. These antibodies can distinguish between chromatin from reticulocytes and erythrocytes and have no activity with chicken liver chromatin. The antibodies will also differentiate between reticulocytes and erythrocytes by the the horseradish peroxidase bridge localization technique. The nonhistone protein components of the antigenic complex are very tightly bound to the DNA, removable by extraction with sodium dodecyl sulfate but not 2.5 M NaCl-5 M urea. Our data indicate that the antigen complexes could actually be present in both reticulocytes and erythrocytes but that chromatin condensation causes a structural masking of the complexes which coincides with the known decline in transcriptive activity of the erythrocyte.