Publisher Summary This chapter describes the low-molecular-weight basic proteins in
spermatids. The rat testis system offers the possibility of analyzing the role of nuclear
proteins in terms of their effect on nuclear structure and gene transcription. Low-molecular-
weight basic proteins replace the histones and many of the nonhistone proteins during
maturation of spermatids in the rat testis. The maturation process serves as a model of
cellular differentiation in which the major morphological event is the condensation of …