Nucleosome repeat lengths do not change during in vitro differentiation of erythroleukemia cells.

It has been previously demonstrated that nucleosome repeat lengths change during avian erythroid development and that repeat lengths correlate with histone H5 levels. Chromatin condensation also occurs during this process. In order to further investigate the relationship between histone H5 and/or chromatin condensation and nucleosome structure, repeat lengths were examined during in vitro differentiation of mouse erythroleukemia cells in which chromatin condensation occurs but in which histone H5 is absent. Our finding that repeat lengths do not change during this process supports the hypothesis that H5 plays a role in the mechanism which determines nucleosome repeat lengths.