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  • TECHNOLOGY FEATURE

The new techniques revealing the varied shapes of chromatin

Researchers are realizing that the DNA–protein complex doesn’t just have one form but many.
  1. Jeffrey M. Perkel
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Molecular models suggest that chromosomes assemble in an ordered, hierarchical way: DNA wraps around proteins called histones to form nucleosomes, which fold into 30-nanometre fibres, then 120-nanometre ‘chromonema’, and further into larger chromatin structures until they reach their most tightly coiled form — the characteristic X-shaped bodies.

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Nature 569, 293-294 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01426-w

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