Bianchi M E
Dipartimento di Genetica e di Biologia dei Microrganismi, Università di Milano, Italy.
Mol Microbiol. 1994 Oct;14(1):1-5. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.1994.tb01261.x.
HU and IHF proteins have long been considered the prokaryotic analogues of eukaryotic histones. Their ability to bend DNA, however, is distinctly similar to that of eukaryotic HMG-box proteins, a recently identified family of chromatin components and transcription factors. In some conditions, HU and HMG1-like proteins can even be swapped, both in vitro and in vivo. In spite of this, HU/IHF and HMG-box proteins are not evolutionarily related, and represent two independent solutions for the same biochemical problem.
HU蛋白和整合宿主因子(IHF)长期以来被认为是真核组蛋白的原核类似物。然而,它们使DNA弯曲的能力却与真核HMG盒蛋白极为相似,后者是最近发现的一类染色质成分和转录因子。在某些条件下,HU蛋白和类HMG1蛋白在体外和体内甚至可以相互替换。尽管如此,HU/IHF蛋白和HMG盒蛋白在进化上并无关联,它们是针对同一生化问题的两种独立解决方案。