The positioning of nucleosomes along chromatin has been implicated in the regulation of gene expression in eukaryotic cells, because packaging DNA into nucleosomes affects sequence accessibility. We developed a tiled microarray approach to identify at high resolution the translational positions of 2278 nucleosomes over 482 kilobases of Saccharomyces cerevisiae DNA, including almost all of chromosome III and 223 additional regulatory regions. The majority of the nucleosomes identified were well-positioned. We found a stereotyped chromatin organization at Pol II promoters consisting of a nucleosome-free region approximately 200 base pairs upstream of the start codon flanked on both sides by positioned nucleosomes. The nucleosome-free sequences were evolutionarily conserved and were enriched in poly-deoxyadenosine or poly-deoxythymidine sequences. Most occupied transcription factor binding motifs were devoid of nucleosomes, strongly suggesting that nucleosome positioning is a global determinant of transcription factor access.

• PMID: 15961632
• DOI full text
• PubMed

Reference Type

Journal Article | Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural | Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't | Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Authors

Yuan GC, Liu YJ, Dion MF, Slack MD, Wu LF, Altschuler SJ, Rando OJ

Primary Lit For

Additional Lit For

Review For