nucleins
Nucleins is a historical term used to describe the substance isolated from cell nuclei that contains nucleic acids bound to proteins. In contemporary biology, the expression is largely superseded by descriptions such as nucleic acids, nucleoproteins, or chromatin, depending on context. The concept nonetheless played a foundational role in the development of molecular biology.
The term originated with the work of Friedrich Miescher in 1869, who extracted a substance from the
Nucleins, in the historical sense, referred to complexes of nucleic acids with proteins. In modern terms, these
Functionally, nucleoproteins are essential for genetic information storage, replication, transcription, and regulation. They participate in chromatin