Eur. Phys. J. E (2015) 38: 85
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2015-15085-4

Regular Article

Computational study of remodeling in a nucleosomal array

¹ Instituut-Lorentz, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9506, 2300 RA, Leiden, The Netherlands
² Adolf-Butenandt-Institute and Center for Integrated Protein Science Munich, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany

^* e-mail: schiessel@lorentz.leidenuniv.nl

Received: 9 January 2015
Revised: 18 May 2015
Accepted: 1 July 2015
Published online: 10 August 2015

Abstract

Chromatin remodeling complexes utilize the energy of ATP hydrolysis to change the packing state of chromatin, e.g. by catalysing the sliding of nucleosomes along DNA. Here we present simple models to describe experimental data of changes in DNA accessibility along a synthetic, repetitive array of nucleosomes during remodeling by the ACF enzyme or its isolated ATPase subunit, ISWI. We find substantial qualitative differences between the remodeling activities of ISWI and ACF. To understand better the observed behavior for the ACF remodeler, we study more microscopic models of nucleosomal arrays.