Isolation and electrophoresis of nuclear proteins of bean

Methods are described for the fractionation of the acidic and basic proteins associated with the chromatin of plant tissue. Polyacrylamide gel systems are also described which give optimal electrophoretic resolution of these protein fractions. Utilizing these techniques, comparative studies revealed a differential specificity of these proteins for the undifferentiated hook and the more differentiated lower hypocotyl tissue of bean hypocotyls. The acidic nuclear protein fractions exhibited a difference in gel patterns of the two stages of development while the histones showed little difference. The ratio of the ethanol-HCl extracted histones to the HCl extracted histones appeared to increase with development.