Much like moving furniture around to create more space, cells dramatically rearrange their entire genome in order to allow the right genes to be turned on at the right time, new research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows. This extensive chromosomal “remodeling” is accomplished by moving DNA packaging structures called nucleosomes to different spots in the genome. Once a nucleosome is moved from a site, the appropriate gene then can be expressed much more efficiently.The new findings appear online in the journal Nature Genetics. The study will be published in the August print edition.
