Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate [PtdIns(4, 5)P 2 ] has been known to bind to the pleckstrin homology domain and the phosphotyrosine-binding domain as well as actin-binding proteins, and to regulate their functions. We have tried to find new PtdIns(4,5)P 2 -binding proteins and to clarify the physiological effects of PtdIns(4,5)P 2 on their function. We report here that histones H1 and H3 are PtdIns(4,5)P 2 -binding proteins which were identified using antibodies specific to PtdIns(4,5)P 2 , H1, and H3. This binding was further confirmed by extracting PtdIns(4,5)P 2 from purified histone H1 and H3. Furthermore, the binding site of PtdIns(4,5)P 2 in histone H1 was found in the carboxyl-terminal 103 amino acids. It was also shown that the amounts of PtdIns(4,5)P 2 bound to H1 decrease when histone H1 is phosphorylated by protein kinase C but not by protein kinase A or cdc2 kinase, in vitro. The protein kinase C phosphorylation site is localized close to the PtdIns(4,5)P 2-binding site, suggesting that phosphorylation of histone H1 by protein kinase C interferes stereostructually with PtdIns(4,5)P 2 binding. We further noticed that PtdIns(4,5)P 2 binding to H1 counteracts the histone H1-mediated repression of basal transcription by RNA polymerase II in a Drosophila transcription system in vitro. Phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate and phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate affect this transcription activity more weakly than PtdIns(4,5)P 2 , but PtdIns and other acidic lipids have no effect on this activity. These data indicate that PtdIns(4,5)P 2 bound to nuclear protein histone H1 may contribute to the regulation of transcription in eukaryotic cells.Keywords : phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate; histone H1; phosphorylation; transcription; nucleus.Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate [PtdIns(4,5)P 2 ] is rec-ates second messengers, but also modulates the function of ognized as the source of the bioactive second messenger inositol PtdIns(4,5)P 2 -binding proteins. trisphosphate [Ins(1, 4, 5)P 3 ] for intracellular Ca 2ϩ mobilization Increasing evidence indicates that PtdIns(4,5)P 2 is present and diacylglycerol for protein kinase C (PKC) activation. In in the nuclear membrane and nuclear matrix as well as in addition to its role as a signal-generating lipid, PtdIns(4,5)P 2 has the plasma membrane and cytoplasmic cytoskeleton. Likewise, been shown to modulate the functions of various proteins such the isolated membrane-free nuclei from Friend erythroleukemia as PKC [1,2], µ-calpain [3], ADP-ribosylation factor 1 [4], and cells have enzymes that produce both PtdIns4P and phospholipase D [5]. PtdIns(4,5)P 2 also binds to actin-regulating PtdIns(4,5)P 2 [14], and a decrease in nuclear PtdIns4P and proteins such as profilin [6], cofilin [7], gelsolin [8], gCap [9], PtdIns(4,5)P 2 was observed in Swiss 3T3 cells in the early stages and A-actinin [10] and regulates the functions of these pro-of the response to insulin like growth factor 1 [15] and in HeLa teins. It has been reported that a decrease in the amount of...