核小体在基因组DNA上的位置会影响染色体功能的很多方面。近日刊登在国际著名杂志Nature上的一篇研究报道揭示了酿酒酵母核小体分布图。
Kristin Brogaard等人建立了一种新颖的方法，来在全基因组范围内对酿酒酵母的核小体位置进行活体分析，其办法是利用高度局部化的羟基自由基来修饰工程改造的组蛋白。
所获得的分布图以单碱基对的准确性限定了核小体中心的位置。核小体的精确位置被发现与各种不同的基因组特征相关，其中包括转位子集成点的精确位置以及RNA聚合酶的停顿点。
doi:10.1038/nature11142
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A map of nucleosome positions in yeast at base-pair resolution
Kristin Brogaard, Liqun Xi, Ji-Ping Wang & Jonathan Widom
The exact positions of nucleosomes along genomic DNA can influence many aspects of chromosome function. However, existing methods for mapping nucleosomes do not provide the necessary single-base-pair accuracy to determine these positions. Here we develop and apply a new approach for direct mapping of nucleosome centres on the basis of chemical modification of engineered histones. The resulting map locates nucleosome positions genome-wide in unprecedented detail and accuracy. It shows new aspects of the in vivo nucleosome organization that are linked to transcription factor binding, RNA polymerase pausing and the higher-order structure of the chromatin fibre.
