Tiny protein variation has huge impact on all animals and plants

In the journal Science, scientists at Yale and the University of Ottawa show how the smallest variation in a single molecule is crucial for the repair and replication of DNA in plants and animals.

The findings show that histones is a vital part of the process of packaging DNA into chromosomes. For decades biologists have wondered why one variant of histones, known as H 3.1, differs from its genetically identical twin H 3.3.

The H3.1 variant is found in all plants and animals, leading scientists to believe that it is involved in genome replication during cell division. Its role in this process has remained a mystery.

New insights into the variant's critical role were revealed by researchers in the lab ofYannick Jacob, assistant professor of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology at Yale and co-corresponding author of the paper. By manipulating the plant's genome, they found that a single change in histone variant H 3.1 is needed to recruit a specificProtein needed to repair damaged DNA during replication.

Jacob said that H 3.1 serves as a flag to make sure that the pathway repair is only functional during DNA replication.

Jacob said that when scientists replicated cells without H 3.1, they saw many defects.

Jacob said that understanding the role of H 3.1 and its variable amino acid could lead to new therapeutic approaches to human diseases like cancer.

This study was a collaboration between Yale University and a research team. Yi-Chun Huang is a co-lead author. The co-corresponding author on the study is Jean-Franc.

More information: Hossein Davarinejad et al, The histone H3.1 variant regulates TONSOKU-mediated DNA repair during replication, Science (2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.abm5320 Journal information: Science Citation: Tiny protein variation has huge impact on all animals and plants (2022, March 17) retrieved 18 March 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-03-tiny-protein-variation-huge-impact.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.