Antigenic determinants of high mobility group chromosomal proteins 1 and 2

Abstract
The antigenic determinants of nonhistone high mobility group chromosomal proteins 1 (HMG-1) and 2 (HMG-2) were studied with rabbit antisera elicited against HMG-1 and against HMG-2 and monoclonal antibodies elicited by HMG-1. The monoclonal antibodies did not distinguish between the 2 proteins, suggesting that they have specificity toward a shared determinant. Whereas anti-HMG-1 did not, anti-HMG-2 did distinguish between the proteins, suggesting that the anti-HMG-2 serum contains antibodies against peptides which differ between the proteins. Peptides were generated from HMG-1 and HMG-2 by controlled digestion with trypsin and pepsin. Analysis of the digests by ELISA [enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay] and by sodium dodecyl sulfate electrophoresis followed by diazobenzyloxymethyl transfer, antibody binding and autoradiography revealed that most of the antibodies are against sequential determinants, some of which are smaller than 3000 in MW.