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Updated: Jul 5, 2026

In Situ Nucleosome Assembly for Single-Molecule Correlative Force and Fluorescence Microscopy
Published on: September 6, 2024
DNase I footprinting of the nucleosome in whole nuclei
1Imperial College London, National Heart and Lung Institute, Royal Brompton Campus, Guy Scadding Building, Dovehouse Street, London SW3 6LY, UK. d.staynov@imperial.ac.uk
Abstract:
DNase I was used to footprint the 147 bp DNA fragment of the nucleosome in whole chicken erythrocyte nuclei. It was found that the higher-order structure imposes an additional protection on nucleosomes at sites close to the entry and exit points of the linker DNA, around the dyad axis (site S 0). The observed protection is extended up to 20 bp on either side of S 0. It is partial (approximately 50%) and most probably reflects a full protection of different regions in alternatively oriented nucleosomes. These are the same regions which interact with linker histones. The results strongly support the findings by simulation of DNase I digests of unlabelled oligonucleosome fragments in the 30 nm fibre that in all nucleosomes sites S -5 to S -3 and S +3 to S +5 ara on the outside of the fibre exposed to DNase I.
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