Core component of nucleosome. Nucleosomes wrap and compact DNA into chromatin, limiting DNA accessibility to the cellular machineries which require DNA as a template. Histones thereby play a central role in transcription regulation, DNA repair, DNA replication and chromosomal stability. DNA accessibility is regulated via a complex set of post-translational modifications of histones, also called histone code, and nucleosome remodeling. The nucleosome is a histone octamer containing two molecules each of H2A, H2B, H3 and H4 assembled in one H3-H4 heterotetramer and two H2A-H2B heterodimers. The octamer wraps approximately 147 bp of DNA. Monoubiquitination of Lys-120 (H2AXK119ub) gives a specific tag for epigenetic transcriptional repression. Following DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), it is ubiquitinated through 'Lys-63' linkage of ubiquitin moieties (By similarity). Glutamine methylation at Gln-105 (H2AQ104me) by FBL is specifically dedicated to polymerase I. It is present at 35S ribosomal DNA locus and impairs binding of the FACT complex (By similarity). Phosphorylation on Ser-2 (H2AS1ph) is enhanced during mitosis. Phosphorylation on Ser-2 by RPS6KA5/MSK1 directly represses transcription. Acetylation of H3 inhibits Ser-2 phosphorylation by RPS6KA5/MSK1. Phosphorylation at Thr-121 (H2AT120ph) by DCAF1 is present in the regulatory region of many tumor suppresor genes and down-regulates their transcription (By similarity). Belongs to the histone H2A family.