Dimer repetitions in nucleosome-binding sequences

CHED 819

Shereen M. Ansay, ansay@eden.rutgers.edu1, Fei Xu1, and Wilma K Olson2. (1) Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 610 Taylor Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854, (2) Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology, BioMaPS Institute for Quantitative Biology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 610 Taylor Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854
Nucleosomes, which organize and compact DNA, bind primarily to the sugar-phosphate backbone of sequences, suggesting that the positions at which they bind are random. However, it is known that nucleosomes bind some sequences more strongly than others. Different sets of nucleosome-binding sequences [Kubista, M., et. al. (1997) J. Mol. Biol. 267, 807-817] [Widom, J., et. al. (1998) J. Mol. Biol. 276, 19-42] were analyzed using autocorrelation and cross-correlation positional functions. Certain dimers are prominent and have periodicity in certain sequences. It is the position and deformability of such dimers that stabilize the nucleosome complex.