The sea urchin histone gene complement

The only eukaryotic mRNAs that are not polyadenylated are the replication-dependent histone mRNAs in metazoans. The sea urchin genome contains two sets of histone genes that encode non-polyadenylated mRNAs. One of these sets is a tandemly repeated gene cluster with a 5.6-kb repeat unit containing one copy of each of the five alpha-histone genes and is present as a single large cluster which spans over 1 Mb. There is a second set of genes, consisting of 39 genes, containing two histone H1 genes, 34 genes encoding core histone proteins (H2a, H2b, H3 and H4) and three genes expressed only in the testis. Unlike vertebrates where these genes are clustered, the sea urchin late histone genes, expressed in embryos, larvae and adults, are dispersed throughout the genome. There are also genes encoding polyadenylated histone mRNAs, which encode histone variants, including all variants found in other metazoans, as well as a unique set of five cleavage stage histone proteins expressed in oocytes. The cleavage stage histone H1 is the orthologue of an oocyte-specific histone H1 protein found in vertebrates.