Excess histone H3 is a Chk1 inhibitor that controls embryonic cell cycle progression

The early embryos of many species undergo a switch from rapid, reductive cleavage divisions to slower, cell fate-specific division patterns at the Mid-Blastula Transition (MBT). The maternally loaded histone pool is used to measure the increasing ratio of nuclei to cytoplasm (N/C ratio) to control MBT onset, but the molecular mechanism of how histones regulate the cell cycle has remained elusive. Here, we show that excess histone H3 inhibits the DNA damage checkpoint kinase Chk1 to promote cell cycle progression in the Drosophila embryo. We find that excess H3-tail that cannot be incorporated into chromatin is sufficient to shorten the embryonic cell cycle and reduce the activity of Chk1 in vitro and in vivo. Removal of the Chk1 phosphosite in H3 abolishes its ability to regulate the cell cycle. Mathematical modeling quantitatively supports a mechanism where changes in H3 nuclear concentrations over the final cell cycles leading up to the MBT regulate Chk1-dependent cell cycle slowing. We provide a novel mechanism for Chk1 regulation by H3, which is crucial for proper cell cycle remodeling during early embryogenesis.