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PMID: 1101222 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S. Review

A model for chromatin structure.

Nucleic acids research ·Vol. 2 ·No. 8 ·1975-08-00 ·Pages 1275-89

Li HJ

Abstract

A model for chromatin structure is presented. (a) Each of four histone species, H2A (IIbl or f2a2), H2B (IIb2 or f2b), H3 (III or f3) and H4 (IV or f2al) can form a parallel dimer. (b) These dimers can form two tetramers, (H2A)2(H2b)2 and (H3)2(H4)2. (C) These two tetramers bind a segment of DNA and condense it into a "C" segments. (d) The adjacent segments, termed extended or "E" segments, are bound by histone H1 (I or fl) for the major fraction of chromatin; the other "E" regions can be either bound by non-histone proteins or free of protein binding. (e) The binding of histones causes a structural distortion of the DNA which, depending upon the external conditions, may generate the formation of either an open structure with a heterogeneous and non-uniform supercoil or a compact structure with a string of beads. The model is supported by experimental data on histone-histone interaction, histone-DNA interaction and histone subunit-DNA interaction.

MeSH Terms
Binding Sites Chromatin/ultrastructure DNA/analysis Histones/analysis Macromolecular Substances Models, Structural Nucleic Acid Conformation Nucleoproteins/analysis Protein Binding Protein Conformation Trypsin X-Ray Diffraction
Chemicals
Chromatin Histones Macromolecular Substances Nucleoproteins DNA Trypsin
Authors & Affiliations
1 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Li H J
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58 references, click to expand
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Article Info
Journal
Nucleic acids research
Abbr.
Nucleic Acids Res
ISSN
0305-1048
DOI
10.1093/nar/2.8.1275
Published
1975-08-00
Pages
1275-89
Language
English
Region
England
NLM ID
0411011
PMCID
PMC344381
Subset
IM
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1093/nar/2.8.1275 PMC Full Text View journal details
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