Arcesi Luca, La Penna Giovanni, Perico Angelo
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Institute for Macromolecular Studies, Genova, Via De Marini 6, 16149 Genova, Italy.
Biopolymers. 2007 Jun 5;86(2):127-35. doi: 10.1002/bip.20711.
Histonelike proteins in prokaryotes and histone octamers in eukaryotes carry large positive charges, which are responsible of strong electrostatic interactions with DNA. As a result, DNA wraps around proteins and genetic information is condensed. We describe a generalized model of these electrostatic interactions mediated by salt that explains the wrapping of DNA around the nucleosome octamer, around remodeling factors in eukaryotes and around histonelike proteins in prokaryotes. It comes out that small changes in protein dimension and charge produce large effects in the supramolecular DNA-protein architecture.
原核生物中的类组蛋白和真核生物中的组蛋白八聚体带有大量正电荷，这些正电荷负责与DNA进行强烈的静电相互作用。结果，DNA缠绕在蛋白质周围，遗传信息被压缩。我们描述了一个由盐介导的这些静电相互作用的通用模型，该模型解释了DNA围绕核小体八聚体、真核生物中的重塑因子以及原核生物中的类组蛋白的缠绕。结果表明，蛋白质尺寸和电荷的微小变化会对超分子DNA-蛋白质结构产生巨大影响。
