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Biophys J, May 2000, p. 2716-2729, Vol. 78, No. 5

Chiral Discotic Columnar Germs of Nucleosome Core Particles

Françoise Livolant and Amélie Leforestier

Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Université Paris Sud, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France

In concentrated solution and in the presence of high concentrations of monovalent cations, nucleosome core particles order into a discotic columnar mesophase. This phase is limited to finite-sized hexagonal germs that further divide into six coiled branches, following an iterative process. We show how the structure of the germs comes from the competition between hexagonal packing and chirality with a combination of dendritic facetting and double-twist configurations. Geometrical considerations lead us to suspect that the chirality of the eukaryotic chromosomes may originate from the same competition.

Biophys J, May 2000, p. 2716-2729, Vol. 78, No. 5
© 2000 by the Biophysical Society   0006-3495/00/05/2716/14  $2.00


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S. Mangenot, A. Leforestier, D. Durand, and F. Livolant
X-Ray Diffraction Characterization of the Dense Phases Formed by Nucleosome Core Particles
Biophys. J., April 1, 2003; 84(4): 2570 - 2584.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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