Histone H4

Histone H4 is an 11.3 kDa protein consisting of 102 amino acid residues. It forms a heterotetramer with Histone H3 which constitutes the core component of the 'nucleosome'. The Histone H4 family consists of 116 members reported from different organisms. Humans have a single H4 and it is coded by 14 genes, majority of which are present in cluster 1 and the others in cluster 2 and 4.

H4 is the most conserved histone and it acts as the docking site for other histones. It is incorporated into the nucleosome by the Asf1 chaperone as an H3-H4 dimer. A number of post-translational modifications like acetylation, methylation, phosphorylation exist on histone H4. The significance of these PTMs has been shown in various biological processes like DNA damage, transcriptional activation, heterochromatinisation and as hallmarks of Cancer.

Cytogenetic map of histone H4 coding genes
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Variants of histone H4
Variant (UniprotKB recommended name) UniprotKB Accession No. of coding gene(s)
Histone H4P6280514 (HIST4H4, HIST2H4B, HIST1H4I, HIST1H4A, HIST1H4D, HIST1H4F, HIST1H4K, HIST1H4J, HIST1H4C, HIST1H4H, HIST1H4B, HIST1H4E, HIST1H4L, HIST2H4A)