Two clones, obtained by polymerase chain reaction from macronuclear DNA of the unicellular ciliated protist Blepharisma japonicum, were isolated and sequenced. They correspond to fragments of two different putative H4 histone genes. The existence of multiple H4 histone genes was also suggested by Southern blot hybridisation experiments employing one of the obtained clones as a probe. Two B. japonicum H4 protein fragments, which were directly sequenced, show differences in the amino acid sequences too. The comparison of the obtained B. japonicum H4 partial amino acid sequences with each other, and with H4 from other ciliates and from representative microbial and multicellular organisms, highlights the larger histone heterogeneity of lower eukaryotes compared to that observed in higher organism