Mechanistic Analyses of Supercoiling Behaviors of DNA in Nucleosomes and Chromatins

Besides those in 146-base pair nucleosome core particle DNA, supercoils have been known to be present in 10-base pair arm DNA segments and naked linker DNA segments. The interacting patterns among histone octamers, histone H1, 10-base pair arm DNA segments and linker DNA have, however, not yet been elucidated. In the current report, we examine correlations among constituents of nucleosomes from the mechanistic perspectives and present molecular pathways for elucidating supercoiling behaviors of their component DNA sequences. It is our hope that our new analyses could serve as incentives to further clarify correlations between histones and DNA in the dynamic structures of chromatins in the future.