Histones & Other Nuclear Proteins [Book Review]

Kossel's book "The Protamines and Histones" appeared in 1921. The subject than went book-less for over 40 years. Suddenly in the past two years, two volumes devoted to histone matters have appeared, of which the present book by Professor Harris Busch is one. The sudden interest in the histones is, of course, due to the fact that it is to these proteins that nature entrusts the task of complex-formation with the genetic DNA of higher organisms. Further, DNA fully complexed with an appropriate histone is inaccessible for transcription by RNA polymerase. His tones are therefore repressors of genetic activity. Investigation of the interactions of histone and DNA can, we imagine, provide a route to the study of the regulation of gene function, and hence to the molecular basis of development