Linker histone H1 variants

[1] H1 forms a complex family of related proteins with distinct specificity for tissues, developmental stages, and organisms in which they are expressed.

Within one species, the paralogous H1 variants show a high conservation of the globular core domain, while the N- and C-termini are more divergent.

For example, individual H1 variant knockout mice reveal specific phenotypes and distinct effects on gene expression and chromatin structure.

[2] Multiple nomenclatures (around 12) for linker histone variants have been proposed and used in publications previously, greatly complicating comparison across studies.

In 1994 Parseghian et al. have attempted to create a system in which variant designations were applied uniformly to orthologs across mammalian species,[22] however this nomenclature hasn't been taken up by other laboratories.