Patterns of histone acetylation.

The N-terminal domains of all four core histones are subject to reversible acetylation at certain lysine residues. This modification has been functionally linked to transcription, histone deposition at replication and to histone removal during spermatogenesis. To increase understanding of the significance of this modification we have studied the specificity of site utilisation in the monoacetyl, diacetyl and triacetyl forms of histones H3, H4 and H2B (histone H2A has only a single modification site), using pig thymus and HeLa cells as the source of histones.