Department of Chemistry, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA.
J Biol Chem. 2012 Feb 17;287(8):5183-91. doi: 10.1074/jbc.R111.305763. Epub 2011 Dec 7.
Understanding the structural organization of eukaryotic chromatin and its control of gene expression represents one of the most fundamental and open challenges in modern biology. Recent experimental advances have revealed important characteristics of chromatin in response to changes in external conditions and histone composition, such as the conformational complexity of linker DNA and histone tail domains upon compact folding of the fiber. In addition, modeling studies based on high-resolution nucleosome models have helped explain the conformational features of chromatin structural elements and their interactions in terms of chromatin fiber models. This minireview discusses recent progress and evidence supporting structural heterogeneity in chromatin fibers, reconciling apparently contradictory fiber models.
了解真核染色质的结构组织及其对基因表达的控制是现代生物学中最基本和最开放的挑战之一。最近的实验进展揭示了染色质对外界条件和组蛋白组成变化的响应的重要特征,例如纤维紧密折叠时连接 DNA 和组蛋白尾部结构域的构象复杂性。此外,基于高分辨率核小体模型的建模研究有助于根据染色质纤维模型解释染色质结构元件的构象特征及其相互作用。这篇综述讨论了支持染色质纤维结构异质性的最新进展和证据,调和了明显矛盾的纤维模型。