Question

What is the Purpose of Histones?

Answer 1

Histones:

1. It is a protein that provides structures to the chromosomes.
2. Each chromosome consists of hyper-condensed DNA.
3. Each of the DNA strands is wound around a core formed of histone proteins.
4. This confirmation is called a nucleosome.
5. Each nucleosome contains two and a half turns of DNA wound around eight histone proteins comprising two molecules each of H2A, H2B, H3, and H4. H1 is present to connect to the linker DNA segments that link to adjacent nucleosomes.
6. Histone proteins are positively charged proteins (containing lysine and arginine residues) in order to easily bind to negatively charged DNA.
7. Hence histones help in DNA packaging and regulating the activity of genes.
8. They also give a compact shape to chromosomes.