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Histone Variants pp 273–291Cite as

Studying the Evolution of Histone Variants Using Phylogeny

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Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1832))

Abstract

Histones wrap DNA to form nucleosomes that package eukaryotic genomes. Histone variants have evolved for diverse functions including gene expression, DNA repair, epigenetic silencing, and chromosome segregation. With the rapid increase of newly sequenced genomes the repertoire of histone variants expands, demonstrating a great diversification of these proteins across eukaryotes. In this chapter, we are providing guidelines for the computational characterization and annotation of histone variants. We describe methods to predict the characteristic histone fold domain and list features specific to known histone variants that can be used to categorize newly identified histone fold proteins. We continue describing procedures to retrieve additional related histone variants for comparative sequence analyses and phylogenetic reconstructions to refine the annotation and to determine the evolutionary trajectories of the variant in question.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Paul Talbert and members of the Drinnenberg lab for comments on the manuscript. I.A.D. receives salary support from the CNRS. This work is supported by the Labex DEEP ANR-11-LABX-0044 part of the IDEX Idex PSL ANR-10-IDEX-0001-02 PSL, the Institut Curie and funds from the Atip Avenir 2015 program. A. M. was supported by the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation (DRG:2192-14).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Basic Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA

    Antoine Molaro

  2. Institut Curie, Paris Sciences et Lettres Research University, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique UMR 3664, Paris, France

    Ines A. Drinnenberg

Authors
  1. Antoine Molaro
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  2. Ines A. Drinnenberg
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Correspondence to Antoine Molaro or Ines A. Drinnenberg .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Curie, PSL Research University CNRS, UMR3664, Equipe Labellisée Ligue contre le Cancer, Paris, France

    Guillermo A. Orsi

  2. Institut Curie, PSL Research University CNRS, UMR3664, Equipe Labellisée Ligue contre le Cancer, Paris, France

    Geneviève Almouzni

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Molaro, A., Drinnenberg, I.A. (2018). Studying the Evolution of Histone Variants Using Phylogeny. In: Orsi, G., Almouzni, G. (eds) Histone Variants. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1832. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8663-7_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8663-7_15

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

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