| Abstract: | Raman spectra have been observed of nucleosome core particles (I) prepared from chicken erythrocyte chromatin, its isolated 146 bp DNA (II), and its isolated histone octamer (H2A+H2B+H3+H4)2 (III). By examining the difference Raman spectra, (I)-(II), (I)-(III), and (I)-(II)-(III), several pieces of information have been obtained on the conformation of the DNA moiety, the conformation of the histone moiety, and the DNA-histone interaction in the nucleosome core particles. In the nucleosome core particles, about 15 bp (A.T rich) portions of the whole 146 bp DNA are considered to take an A-form conformation. These are considered to correspond to its bent portions which appear at intervals of 10 bp. |
