[Comparative characteristics of chromatin endonuclease fragments].

Soluble fragments of chromatin obtained by Ca, Mg-dependent endonuclease digest of rat liver nuclei, have been separated by gel chromatography on Sepharose 4B into three zones, containing oligomers, tetramers--dimers and monomers, respectively. The content of nonhistone proteins and particularly lysine-rich histones is decreased with a transition from theoligomers to monomers. The average protein/DNA ratio of the monomers is equal to 1.36 and that of histone/DNA ratio--to 0.82. The dependence of the degree of chromatin digest by endonuclease on its protein content and conditions of isolation and incubation of nuclei is discussed. The chromatin monomer formed appears to be made up of a nucleosome and short portions of spacer DNA bound to some part of histone HI and nonhistone proteins.