Upon the observation of superbeads in chromatin

Abstract

There exist some indications that nucleases recognize "superbeads" in chromatin. We show that a chromatin extract of rat liver which contains so-called "superbead"-peaks can be separated in a Mg++ soluble and a Mg++ insoluble fraction. The Mg++ insoluble fraction contains the full complement of histones and the expected DNA fragments, but has lost the characteristic peaks in sucrosegradient profiles. These discrete peaks are found in the Mg2+ soluble fraction of the chromatin extract. We give evidence that these peaks are RNP particles on the basis of their protein- and nucleic acid contents.