Chromatin self-organization by mutation bias.

Proteins, on binding to a DNA sequence, alter the frequency and quality of mutations that occur in the sequence. This represents a reverse flow of information from proteins to DNA. Nucleosome binding causes patterns of UV-induced damage which, when converted to mutations by replication, will phase nucleosomes. We propose that DNA binding proteins create their own high- or low-affinity binding sites along DNA sequences by biased mutational pressure.