[Isolation and purification of plant histones].

A fractionation pattern for isolation and identification of histones, allowing to obtain preparative amounts of individual histone fractions, is proposed. The obtained fractions were identified by their solubility, by differential staining and by electrophoresis. The fractionation resulted in all major histone fractions of wheat, rye, cotton, pea and calf thymus. The electrophoretic patterns of all plant histones were identical, differing only in their histone H1 contents. The histone fraction H1 was also found to be heterogeneous, which, with the exception of cotton H1 fraction, was more pronounced than in the case of calf thymus. The data obtained can be interpreted in terms of the functional role of histones in the genetic mechanism of plants and a possible use of individual fractions and components of histones for the study of phylogenetic relationships between the species.