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Updated: May 21, 2026

Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP) in Mouse T-cell Lines
Published on: June 17, 2017
Apoptotic cleavage of DNA in human lymphocyte chromatin shows high sequence specificity
Thomas Bettecken1, Zakharia M Frenkel, Janine Altmüller
1CAGT-Center for Applied Genotyping, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Kraepelinstr. 2-10, D-80804, Munich, Germany. bettecken@mpipsykl.mpg.de
Abstract:
Apoptotic digestion of human lymphocyte chromatin results in the appearance of large amounts of nucleosome size DNA fragments. Sequencing of these fragments and analysis of the distribution of bases around the apoptotic nucleases' cutting sites revealed a rather strong consensus sequence, not observed earlier. The consensus TAAAgTAcTTTA is characterized by complementary symmetry, resembling prokaryotic restriction sites. This consensus also possesses three TA dinucleotide steps, separated by five bases (corresponding to a half-period of the DNA double helix), suggesting strong bending of the DNA at the cut sites which is perhaps required for cutting.
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