Effects of DNA supercoiling on the topological properties of nucleosomes

In the nucleosome core particle, at least 145 base pairs of DNA are bound to the histone octamer in a superhelical conformation. We have asked what effect the presence of these particles has on the ability of DNA gyrase to supercoil DNA. Synthetic minichromosomes, constructed by reconstituting complexes of core histones with the closed circular plasmid pBR322, were treated with various amounts of DNA gyrase. We have found that the maximum level of supercoiling that is attainable is nearly identical for protein-free plasmids and for plasmids half-saturated with core histones, even though supercoiling does not result in a loss of histones from the complex. It appears that, at sufficiently high levels of supercoiling, the core particle is disrupted in such a way that the DNA bound to histones is no longer constrained.