Free energy spectroscopy reveals the mechanistic landscape of chromatin compaction.

ABSTRACT: Eukaryotic genomic DNA is repeatedly wrapped into nucleosome spools: the basic building block of chromatin. This organization regulates the physical accessibility of the genome to gene transcription, replication, and repair regulatory factors. Chromatin compaction is controlled by multivalent weak interactions, resulting in a complicated conformational landscape that remains challenging to characterize. This work reports a method for characterizing chromatin compaction, Free Energy Spectroscopy (FES), which is based on DNA nanotechnology and transmission electron microscopy. This method experimentally determines the chromatin compaction free energy landscape in terms of end-to-end distance and nucleosome stacking interactions. By deconvolving the free energy landscapes of partially and ful

SUBMITTER: Bonin K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12431002 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature