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Determinants of nucleosome positioning

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology volume 20, pages 267–273 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

Nucleosome positioning is critical for gene expression and most DNA-related processes. Here we review the dominant patterns of nucleosome positioning that have been observed and summarize the current understanding of their underlying determinants. The genome-wide pattern of nucleosome positioning is determined by the combination of DNA sequence, ATP-dependent nucleosome remodeling enzymes and transcription factors that include activators, components of the preinitiation complex and elongating RNA polymerase II. These determinants influence each other such that the resulting nucleosome positioning patterns are likely to differ among genes and among cells in a population, with consequent effects on gene expression.

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Figure 1: Illustration of the concepts of nucleosome positioning and nucleosome occupancy.
Figure 2: Nucleosome sequence preferences.
Figure 3: Determinants of nucleosome positioning.

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Acknowledgements

This Review is dedicated to the memory of Jon Widom, our dear friend and colleague, who is sorely missed by the authors and the scientific community. We thank D. Schneider for encouraging us to write this Review, and Z. Moqtaderi, T. Raveh-Sadka, M. Levo, N. Kaplan and Y. Field for comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by grant GM 30186 from the US National Institutes of Health to K.S. and grants from the European Research Council and the US National Institutes of Health to E.S.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Kevin Struhl

  2. Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

    Eran Segal

  3. Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

    Eran Segal

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  1. Kevin Struhl
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  2. Eran Segal
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Correspondence to Kevin Struhl or Eran Segal.

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Struhl, K., Segal, E. Determinants of nucleosome positioning. Nat Struct Mol Biol 20, 267–273 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.2506

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