The binding of the antitumor drug cis-dichlorodiammineplatinum(II) and its inactive trans isomer with the nucleosome core particle has been investigated. Kinetic studies show that platinum binding increases with incubation time, from a few bound platinum atoms per nucleosome core in the first 0.5 hr to 40-50 after 40 hr. There is no crosslinking or dissociation of nucleosome cores upon platinum binding, as revealed by sedimentation velocity measurements. Electrophoresis through 0.1% sodium dodecyl sulfate/18% polyacrylamide gels after platinum binding reveals striking differences in the DNA and protein band patterns for the two isomers. cis-Dichlorodiammineplatinum(II) binds first to the DNA, retarding and spreading its migration in the gel. A comparison study with the 146-base-pair nucleosome core DNA showed the binding to be little affected by the presence of the histone octamer. The trans complex, on the other hand, produces DNA-histone and histone-histone crosslinks that only appear for the cis isomer after long incubation times. The protein-protein crosslinks were reversed by soaking the gel in cyanide solution to form [Pt(CN)(4)](-2). Subsequent two-dimensional gel electrophoresis revealed that trans-dichlorodiammineplatinum(II) forms specific crosslinks between histone protein pairs H3 and H2a and H2b and H4 in the nucleosome core. The occurrence of DNA-protein crosslinks was demonstrated by treating the platinum/nucleosome core reaction mixtures with a protease or with nucleases prior to electrophoresis and observing changes in the gel patterns. Platinum was located in the gels through autoradiography using (195m)Pt-labeled complexes. This work clearly demonstrates the greater propensity of trans-dichlorodiammineplatinum(II) to form histone-histone and histone-DNA crosslinks compared with the antitumor active cis isomer, which binds first to the DNA and only forms crosslinks to the histones when the nucleosome core is heavily loaded with platinum.