[Nucleosomes in gene regulation: theoretical approaches]

This work reviews current theoretical approaches of biophysics and bioinformatics for the description of nucleosome arrangement in chromatin and transcription factor binding to nucleosomal organized DNA. The role of nucleosomes in gene regulation is discussed from molecular mechanistic and biological point of view. In addition to classical problems of this field, actual questions of epigenetic regulation are mentioned. The authors selected for discussion what seem to be the most interesting concepts and hypotheses. Mathematical approaches are described in a simplified language to attract attention to the most important directions of this field.