Viral proteins as a potential driver of histone depletion in dinoflagellates

Abstract

Dinoflagellates are known to use dinoflagellate-viral-nucleoproteins (DVNPs) in place of histones, yet this evolutionary transition is not well understood. Here, Irwin et al. use yeast expressing DVNP to show that DVNP displaces histones and that histone reduction allows cells to cope with DVNP.