Assembly of recombinant nucleosomes on nanofabricated DNA curtains for single-molecule imaging.

Eukaryotic chromosomes are highly packed into chromatin, the basic unit of which is the nucleosome. The presence of nucleosomes and the resulting organization of the genome into higher-order chromatin structures has profound consequences for virtually all aspects of DNA metabolism, including DNA transcription, repair, and chromosome segregation. We have developed novel approaches for nanofabricating "DNA curtains" for high-throughput single-molecule imaging, and we have begun adapting these new research tools in an effort to begin studying chromatin biology at the single-molecule level. In this protocol, we describe procedures for assembly and real-time single-molecule visualization of DNA curtains bound by reconstituted nucleosomes made from recombinant histones.