Histone H2B

Histone H2B is around 14 kDa protein mostly consisting of 126 amino acid residues (though variants may differ). H2A-H2B heterodimer forms a core component of the 'nucleosome'. The Histone H2B family contains 214 different members reported from diverse species. H2B has 19 variants reported in humans. These are coded by 23 genes with majority of them present in cluster 1, very few in cluster 2, cluster 3 and some outside of these clusters. There are relatively few PTMs reported for histone H2B compared to other core histones. Considering the scarcity of literature about histone H2B variants and their post-translational modifications, it seems like it has remained slightly understudied group of proteins.

Cytogenetic map of histone H2B coding genes
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Variants of histone H2B
Variant (UniprotKB recommended name) UniprotKB Accession No. of coding gene(s)
Histone H2B type 1-AQ96A081 (HIST1H2BA)
Histone H2B type 1-BP337781 (HIST1H2BB)
Histone H2B type 1-C/E/F/G/IP628075 (HIST1H2BG, HIST1H2BF, HIST1H2BE, HIST1H2BI, HIST1H2BC)
Histone H2B type 1-DP588761 (HIST1H2BD)
Histone H2B type 1-HQ930791 (HIST1H2BH)
Histone H2B type 1-JP068991 (HIST1H2BJ)
Histone H2B type 1-KO608141 (HIST1H2BK)
Histone H2B type 1-LQ998801 (HIST1H2BL)
Histone H2B type 1-MQ998791 (HIST1H2BM)
Histone H2B type 1-NQ998771 (HIST1H2BN)
Histone H2B type 1-OP235271 (HIST1H2BO)
Histone H2B type 2-EQ167781 (HIST2H2BE)
Histone H2B type 2-FQ5QNW61 (HIST2H2BF)
Histone H2B type 3-BQ8N2571 (HIST3H2BB)
Histone H2B type F-MP0C1H61 (H2BFM)
Histone H2B type F-SP570531 (H2BFS)
Histone H2B type W-TQ7Z2G11 (H2BFWT)
Putative histone H2B type 2-CQ6DN031 (HIST2H2BC)
Putative histone H2B type 2-DQ6DRA61 (HIST2H2BD)