The Use of Histones in Eukaryotes

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In eukaryotes, histones give you something like localized access control. So for example, I can put a what's called a post-translational modification on the histones associated with a chunk of DNA and that modification will be recognized and shut down that gene. That gives you a flexibility of localized control because you can modify some histones in some places but leave others untouched. And that as far as we know, doesn't really exist in arc here. At least hasn't been demonstrated.

Eukaryotic cells manage to pull off a number of remarkable feats. One is packing quite a long DNA molecule, with potentially billions of base pairs, into a tiny central nucleus. A key role is played by histones, proteins that provide scaffolding for DNA to wrap around. Histones also appear in archaea (one of the other domains of life), but until recently there wasn't evidence for them in bacteria (the final of the three domains). Todays guest, Tobias Warnecke, is an author on a recent paper that claims to provide such evidence. We discuss this new result, as well as background questions of how cells evolved and what their current structure can teach us about their histories.

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Tobias Warnecke received his Ph.D. in biology from the University of Bath. He is currently a Programme Leader and MRC Investigator at the London Institute of Medical Sciences. He is a co-author on A. Hochner et al. (2023), "Histone-Organized Chromatin in Bacteria."

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