Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The nucleosome is the fundamental subunit of chromatin. Each nucleosome is composed of a little less than two turns of DNA wrapped around a set of eight proteins called histones, which are known as a histone octamer. Each histone octamer is composed of two copies each of the histone proteins H2A, H2B, H3, and H4.
The nucleosome assembles when DNA wraps around the histone octamer, two H2A-H2B dimers bound to an H3-H4 tetramer. The nucleosome core particle is the most basic form of DNA compaction in eukaryotes. Nucleosomes consist of a histone octamer surrounded by 146 base pairs of DNA wrapped in a superhelical manner. [10]
Schematic representation of the assembly of the core histones into the nucleosome. In biology, histones are highly basic proteins abundant in lysine and arginine residues that are found in eukaryotic cell nuclei and in most Archaeal phyla. They act as spools around which DNA winds to create structural units called nucleosomes.
The major structures in DNA compaction: DNA, the nucleosome, the 11 nm beads on a string chromatin fibre and the metaphase chromosome. Chromatin is a complex of DNA and protein found in eukaryotic cells. [1] The primary function is to package long DNA molecules into more compact, denser structures.
It has been known for many years that a polymer meshwork, a so-called "nuclear matrix" or "nuclear-scaffold" is an essential component of eukaryotic nuclei.This nuclear skeleton acts as a dynamic support for many specialized events concerning the readout a spread of genetic information (see below).
[8] [9] The histones form a disk-shaped complex called a nucleosome, which contains two complete turns of double-stranded DNA wrapped around its surface. These non-specific interactions are formed through basic residues in the histones making ionic bonds to the acidic sugar-phosphate backbone of the DNA, and are therefore largely independent of ...
The organization of DNA within the nucleus begins with the 10 nm fiber, a "beads-on-a-string" structure [24] made of nucleosomes connected by 20-60bp linkers. A fiber of nucleosomes is interrupted by regions of accessible DNA, which are 100-1000bp long regions devoid of nucleosomes.
The nucleoid (meaning nucleus-like) is an irregularly shaped region within the prokaryotic cell that contains all or most of the genetic material. [1] [2] [3] The chromosome of a typical prokaryote is circular, and its length is very large compared to the cell dimensions, so it needs to be compacted in order to fit.