Synthesis of histone messenger RNA of HeLa cells during the cell cycle.

Hybridization of HeLa cell RNA to the DNA of a recombinant phage containing sea urchin histone genes shows that histone mRNA of HeLa cells is synthesized throughout the entire cell cycle. Furthermore, histone messenger is synthesized in cells treated with cytosine arabinoside, an inhibitor of DNA duplication. Although histone RNA is found in the nucleus, the amount of cytoplasmic histone messenger is drastically reduced, in agreement with previous work. The absence of coupling between histone mRNA synthesis and DNA duplication shows that the regulatory process which determines the presence or absence of histone mRNA in the cytoplasm of HeLa cells is not at the transcriptional level.