Analysis of the histone H3 gene family in Arabidopsis and identification of the male-gamete-specific variant AtMGH3

Abstract

Histones are major components of chromatin, the protein-DNA complex involved in DNA packaging and transcriptional regulation. Histone genes have been extensively investigated at the genome level in animal systems and have been classified as replication dependent, replication independent or tissue specific. However, no such study is available in a plant system. In this paper we report that there are 15 histone H3 genes in the Arabidopsis genome, including five H3.1 genes, three H3.3 genes and five H3.3-like genes. A gene structure analysis revealed that gene duplication causes redundancy of the histone H3 genes. The expression of one of the H3 genes, termed AtMGH3/At1g19890, is cell-specific,..