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Usually, DNA condensation is defined as "the collapse of extended DNA chains into compact, orderly particles containing only one or a few molecules". [3] This definition applies to many situations in vitro and is also close to the definition of DNA condensation in bacteria as "adoption of relatively concentrated, compact state occupying a ...
In nature, DNA can form three structures, A-, B-, and Z-DNA. A- and B-DNA are very similar, forming right-handed helices, whereas Z-DNA is a left-handed helix with a zig-zag phosphate backbone. Z-DNA is thought to play a specific role in chromatin structure and transcription because of the properties of the junction between B- and Z-DNA.
The nucleosome is the basic unit of DNA condensation and consists of a DNA double helix bound to an octamer of core histones (2 dimers of H2A and H2B, and an H3/H4 tetramer). About 147 base pairs of DNA coil around 1 octamer, and ~20 base pairs are sequestered by the addition of the linker histone (H1), and various length of "linker" DNA (~0 ...
The packaging of DNA into nucleosomes causes a 10 nanometer fibre which may further condense up to 30 nm fibres [33] Most of the euchromatin in interphase nuclei appears to be in the form of 30-nm fibers. [33] Chromatin structure is the more decondensed state, i.e. the 10-nm conformation allows transcription. [33] Heterochromatin vs. euchromatin
Prophase is the first step of cell division in mitosis. As it occurs after G2 of interphase, DNA has been already replicated when prophase begins. [1] Fluorescence microscope image of two mouse cell nuclei in prophase (scale bar is 5 μm).
Condensin I purified from Xenopus egg extracts is a DNA-stimulated ATPase and displays the ability to introduce positive superhelical tension into dsDNA in an ATP-hydrolysis-dependent manner (positive supercoiling activity).
According to another study, when measured in a different solution, the DNA chain measured 22–26 Å (2.2–2.6 nm) wide, and one nucleotide unit measured 3.3 Å (0.33 nm) long. [10] The buoyant density of most DNA is 1.7g/cm 3. [11] DNA does not usually exist as a single strand, but instead as a pair of strands that are held tightly together.
Heterochromatin is a tightly packed form of DNA or condensed DNA, which comes in multiple varieties. These varieties lie on a continuum between the two extremes of constitutive heterochromatin and facultative heterochromatin. Both play a role in the expression of genes.