Phosphorylation of BigH1 regulates its expression pattern and promotes embryonic development.
Metazoan genomes typically encode several linker histone variants, often expressed in a tissue- or developmental stage-specific manner. The Drosophila melanogaster genome contains only two linker histone variants: H1 is present in somatic cells, while BigH1 substitutes H1 in the germline and early embryos. In the early...