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Updated: Aug 6, 2026

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Assembly of Nucleosomal Arrays from Recombinant Core Histones and Nucleosome Positioning DNA
Published on: September 11, 2013
Twists and turns of the nucleosome: tails without ends
1Department of Biochemistry, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City 84132, USA.
Structure (London, England : 1993)
|November 14, 1997
Abstract:
The high-resolution structure of a nucleosome core particle gives us our first detailed look at the primary level of eukaryotic DNA organization. The structure reveals the nature of histone-DNA contacts and provides some surprises regarding the histone tails and their possible involvement in higher levels of chromatin organization.
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Each human somatic cell contains 6 billion base-pairs of DNA. Each base-pair is 0.34 nm long, which means that each diploid cell contains a staggering 2 meters of DNA. How is such a long DNA strand packed inside a nucleus measuring only 10 - 20 microns in diameter?
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Each human somatic cell contains 6 billion base pairs of DNA. Each base pair is 0.34 nm long, meaning each diploid cell contains a staggering 2 meters of DNA. This long DNA strand is packed inside a nucleus measuring only 10-20 microns in diameter with the help of specialized DNA-binding proteins called histones. Together they form a compact DNA-protein complex called chromatin. The chromatin is further compacted into higher-order structures. The highest level of compaction is achieved during...
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Nucleosomes are the DNA-histone complex, where the DNA strand is wound around the histone core. The histone core is an octamer containing two copies of H2A, H2B, H3, and H4 histone proteins.
Nucleosomes, paradoxically, perform two opposite functions simultaneously. On the one hand, their primary aim is to protect the delicate DNA strands from physical damage and help achieve a higher compaction ratio. On the other hand, they must allow polymerase enzymes to access histone-bound DNA during...
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