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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1980 Jul;77(7):3816–3820. doi: 10.1073/pnas.77.7.3816

The pitch of chromatin DNA is reflected in its nucleotide sequence.

E N Trifonov, J L Sussman
PMCID: PMC349717  PMID: 6933438

Abstract

A correlation analysis of chromatin DNA nucleotide sequences reveals the clear tendency of some of the dinucleotides to be repeated along the sequences with periods of 3 and about 10.5 bases. This latter period, which is equal within experimental error to recent estimates of the pitch of the DNA double helix [Wang, J. (1979) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 76, 200-203; Trifonov, E. & Bettecken, T. (1979) Biochemistry 18, 454-456] is interpreted as a reflection of the deformational anisotropy of the DNA molecule that facilitates its smooth folding in chromatin.

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Selected References

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