Nucleosome rotational setting is associated with transcriptional regulation in promoters of tissue-specific human genes
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Updated: Jun 13, 2026

Getting an A with the 3Cs: Chromosome Conformation Capture for Undergraduates
Published on: May 12, 2023
Charles Hebert1, Hugues Roest Crollius
1Dyogen Group, Institut de Biologie de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure (IBENS), 46 rue d'Ulm, CNRS UMR8197, INSERM U1024, 75005 Paris Cedex 05, France. charles.hebert@gmail.com
Background:
The position of a nucleosome, both translational along the DNA molecule and rotational between the histone core and the DNA, is controlled by many factors, including the regular occurrence of specific dinucleotides with a period of approximately 10 bp, important for the rotational setting of the DNA around the histone octamer.
Results:
We show that such a 10 bp periodic signal of purine-purine dinucleotides occurs in phase with the transcription start site (TSS) of human genes and is centered on the position of the first (+1) nucleosome downstream of the TSS. These data support a direct link between transcription and the rotational setting of the nucleosome. The periodic signal is most prevalent in genes that contain CpG islands that are expressed at low levels in a tissue-specific manner and are involved in the control of transcription.
Conclusions:
These results, together with several lines of evidence from the recent literature, support a new model whereby the +1 nucleosome could be more efficiently disassembled from gene promoters by H3K56 acetylation marks if the periodic signal specifies an optimal rotational setting.
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