The physicochemical properties of histone H2A and modified histone H2A-TAT complexes with plasmid DNA

Abstract

Histone H2A can deliver transgenic DNA into mammalian cells in vitro. The ability of DNA delivery in vivo is a question of the further work, but it is possible to estimate factors in in vitro experiments, which affect delivery in vivo. The first step in this direction was to determine sizes and ζ-potentials of histone H2A complexes with DNA. In this work, we produced recombinant histone H2A and its modification, containing TAT-peptide from human immunodeficiency virus TAT protein, which is capable of enhancing macromolecule delivery into mammalian cells. The effective diameters and ζ-potentials of histones-DNA complexes were estimated. Complexes of histone H2A and complexes of modified histone H2A-TAT with DNA had positive ζ-potentials. Complexes of histone H2A with DNA had an effective diameter of about 200 nm. Histone modification with TAT-peptide led to aggregation and formation of massive particles of about 1 μm in diameter.