Novus Biologicals Launches New Histone Antibodies for DNA Repair Research

Novus Biologicals has recently added two new antibodies to the DNA repair catalog: mouse monoclonal anti-Histone H3 [trimethyl Lys9] antibody (6F12-H4) (catalog #: NBP1-30141) and mouse monoclonal anti-Histone H4 [methyl Lys20] antibody (5E10-D8) (catalog #: NBP1-30091). Both of these new histone antibodies are methylated forms of histone and are also available in 25uL sample sizes.

Novus Biologicals offers over 3,500 research tools for the study of DNA repair. Their DNA repair antibody catalog includes antibodies for the study of double-stranded DNA break repair, chromatin interactions, zinc finger domains, DNA replication, and more.

Histone proteins (H3, H4, H2A, H2B) function as building blocks which package eukaryotic DNA into repeating nucleosome units that are folded in higher order chromatin fibers. The nucleosome is composed of an octamer containing a H3/H4 tetramer and two H2A/H2B dimers, surrounded by approximately 146 base pairs of DNA. A diverse and elaborate array of post-translational modifications including acetylation, phosphorylation, methylation, ubiquitination, and ADP-ribosylation occurs at N-terminal histone domains. Position-specific lysine methylation of histone N termini is a central modification for regulating epigenetic transitions in chromatin. Each methylatable lysine residue can exist in a mono-, di-, or tri-methylated state. The two histone antibodies recently released by Novus Biologicals are mono- and tri-methylated antibodies, respectively.

Novus' new anti-Histone H3 antibody is trimethylated at lysine 9 and made to a synthetic peptide on the C-terminal region of Histone H3 (between amino acids 1-50). Tan J et al. (Genes Dev. 2007 May 1;21(9):1050-63) showed that DZNep successfully induced cancer cell death and inhibited associated histone H3 Lysine 27 methylation, but not histone H3 Lysine 9 methylation.

Novus' new anti-Histone H4 antibody is monomethylated at lysine 20 and is a branched peptide found between amino acids 10-100. Both of these new histone antibodies have been tested for use in chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), Western blotting (WB) and Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). NBP1-30141 is also useful for immunofluorescence (IF).