Histone “acidic patch”: a hotspot in chromatin biology

Molecular function within the cell is not only the information present in the DNA but also how it is being processed. Histones play an important role in regulating these processes, providing cues and platform for various factors to interact with the chromatin and express their function. Histone post translational modification is one of the major features in the regulation of the chromatin functionality, but recent studies have established the role of histone variants as important determinants. Among the canonical as well as variant histones, an aspect called “acidic patch” comes to the forefront. The acidic patch is a region generated by the 3D organization of the dimers (H2A/B), that exhibits a significant accumulation of acidic residues (aspartate and glutamate) on the surface of the octamer core. This review tries to highlight the importance of histone acidic patch, what is known about its structure and function and try to highlight how it may be important in H2A.Z containing nucleosomes.