Related papers: Tension-dependent Free Energies of Nucleosome Unwr…
A simple model for the force-dependent unwinding and rewinding rates of the nucleosome inner turn is constructed and quantitatively compared to the results of recent measurements [A. H. Mack et al., J. Mol. Biol. 423, 687 (2012)]. First, a…
Dynamics of nucleosomes, the building blocks of the chromatin, has crucial effects on expression, replication and repair of genomes in eukaryotes. Beside constant movements of nucleosomes by thermal fluctuations, ATP-dependent chromatin…
Eukaryotic DNA is packaged into chromatin: one-dimensional arrays of nucleosomes separated by stretches of linker DNA are folded into 30-nm chromatin fibers which in turn form higher-order structures. Each nucleosome, the fundamental unit…
In eukaryotic genomes, nucleosomes function to compact DNA and to regulate access to it both by simple physical occlusion and by providing the substrate for numerous covalent epigenetic tags. While nucleosome positions in vitro are…
Nucleosome core particle is a dynamic structure -- DNA may transiently peel off the histone octamer surface due to thermal fluctuations or the action of chromatin remodeling enzymes. Partial DNA unwrapping enables easier access of…
The histone-DNA interaction in the nucleosome is a fundamental mechanism of genomic compaction and regulation, which remains largely unkown despite a growing structural knowledge of the complex. Here, we propose a framework for the…
Chromatin is a complex of DNA, RNA and proteins whose primary function is to package genomic DNA into the tight confines of a cell nucleus. A fundamental repeating unit of chromatin is the nucleosome, an octamer of histone proteins around…
We use nucleosome maps obtained by high-throughput sequencing to study sequence specificity of intrinsic histone-DNA interactions. In contrast with previous approaches, we employ an analogy between a classical one-dimensional fluid of…
Nucleosomes organize the folding of DNA into chromatin and significantly influence transcription, replication, regulation and repair. All atom molecular dynamics simulations of a nucleosome and of its 146 basepairs of DNA free in solution…
One-dimensional arrays of nucleosomes (DNA-bound histone octamers separated by stretches of linker DNA) fold into higher-order chromatin structures which ultimately make up eukaryotic chromosomes. Chromatin structure formation leads to…
Positioning of nucleosomes along eukaryotic genomes plays an important role in their organization and regulation. There are many different factors affecting the location of nucleosomes. Some can be viewed as preferential binding of a single…
Nucleosomes are the fundamental building blocks of chromatin that not only help in the folding of chromatin but also in carrying epigenetic information. It is known that nucleosome sliding is responsible for dynamically organizing chromatin…
Active (catalysed) and passive (intrinsic) nucleosome repositioning is known to be a crucial event during the transcriptional activation of certain eucaryotic genes. Here we consider theoretically the intrinsic mechanism and study in detail…
The equilibrium structure of a Dinucleosome is studied using an elastic model that takes into account the force and torque balance conditions. Using the proper boundary conditions, it is found that the conformational energy of the problem…
Nucleosome organization in eukaryotic genomes has a deep impact on gene function. Although progress has been recently made in the identification of various concurring factors influencing nucleosome positioning, it is still unclear whether…
Chromatin is a highly compact and dynamic nuclear structure that consists of DNA and associated proteins. The main organizational unit is the nucleosome, which consists of a histone octamer with DNA wrapped around it. Histone proteins are…
Chromatin remodeling machineries are abundant and diverse in eukaryotic cells. They have been involved in a variety of situations such as histone exchange and DNA repair, but their importance in gene expression remains unclear. Although the…
Using a theoretical model for spontaneous partial DNA unwrapping from histones, we study the transient exposure of protein-binding DNA sites within nucleosomes. We focus on the functional dependence of the rates for site exposure and…
We construct and analyze monomeric and multimeric models of the stochastic disassembly of a single nucleosome. Our monomeric model predicts the time needed for a number of histone-DNA contacts to spontaneously break, leading to dissociation…
This work reviews current theoretical approaches of biophysics and bioinformatics for the description of nucleosome arrangements in chromatin and transcription factor binding to nucleosomal organized DNA. The role of nucleosomes in gene…