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Chromatin structural transitions in Drosophila embryo cell‐free extract result in a high conformational flexibility of nucleosomal DNA
Author(s) -
Krajewski Wladyslaw A
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/s0014-5793(99)00637-7
Subject(s) - chromatin , nucleosome , dna , naked dna , microbiology and biotechnology , biophysics , flexibility (engineering) , histone , biology , chemistry , genetics , statistics , mathematics , plasmid
DNA within chromatin has considerably more restricted flexibility in comparison with naked DNA. This raises the main question of how the functioning multi‐enzyme complexes overcome the nucleosomal level of DNA packaging. We studied the DNA conformational flexibility of reconstituted chromatin in a cell‐free system derived from Drosophila embryo extracts. Using this system, we have found evidence for a energy‐ independent chromatin remodelling process that efficiently destabilizes the nucleosome structure resulting in a high conformational flexibility of nucleosomal DNA. The described chromatin remodelling process may lay on the basis of defined molecular principles governing the molecular heterogeneity of chromatin structures in vivo.