Protamine biological function

When I was invited to write a monograph on protamines, my original intention was to add new information to the excellent descriptions by the authors I have named above, so as to provide a complete history for future reference. This I have now done with the help of my colleagues. Dr. M. Yamasaki and Dr. Ko. Suzuki. However, since the present authors specialize in the chemical rather than in the biological field, they acknowledge that their description of the possible biological functions of these basic nuclear proteins is unsatisfactory. The authors earnestly hope that biochemists, both in Japan and elsewhere, will work to deepen and widen this field. We shall be very happy if our book is of help to them. 

Isolated nuclei are highly permeable to histones, protamines and other biological macromolecules, whereas ATP and Na become tightly bound. The chief components of isolated and disrupted nuclei are DNA-histone complexes (nucleohistones), ribonucleic acids and poorly soluble acidic proteins (residual proteins). Nuclei also contain high concentrations of an arginase and an adenosine S -phosphata e of unknown function. 

The hypothesis of Stedman and Stedman (1951), which is supported by the more recent in vitro observations of Bonner and his colleagues [Huang and Bonner, 1962 Bonner and Huang, 1964 Bonner et al. 1968 (1)] and Allfrey (1966), postulates that another basic nuclear protein, histone, may modify or repress the genetic expression of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in somatic cell nuclei. Thus it seems likely that the next study of biological interest based on a knowledge of the structures of the two components, DNA and protamine, will focus on the function and roles of the various components of a protamine in the sperm cell nuclei before, during, and after fertilization. 

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