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Updated: Jul 4, 2026

Assembly of Nucleosomal Arrays from Recombinant Core Histones and Nucleosome Positioning DNA
Published on: September 10, 2013
Epigenetic nucleosomes: Alu sequences and CG as nucleosome positioning element
1Genome Diversity Center, Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, Israel.
Abstract:
Alu sequences carry periodical pattern with CG dinucleotides (CpG) repeating every 31-32 bases. Similar distances are observed in distribution of DNA curvature in crystallized nucleosomes, at positions +/-1.5 and +/-4.5 periods of DNA from nucleosome DNA dyad. Since CG elements are also found to impart to nucleosomes higher stability when positioned at +/-1.5 sites, it suggests that CG dinucleotides may play a role in modulation of the nucleosome strength when the CG elements are methylated. Thus, Alu sequences may harbor special epigenetic nucleosomes with methylation-dependent regulatory functions. Nucleosome DNA sequence probe is suggested to detect locations of such regulatory nucleosomes in the sequences.
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