Figure 3. Deletion of the H4 N-terminal leads to decompaction of the `30nm' chromatin fibre.

Electron micrographs showing the effects of different N-terminal histone octamer tail deletions on the compaction state of the chromatin fibres. The electron micrographs of the 202bp × 61 nucleosome arrays with combinations of N-terminal tail deletions analysed by gel electrophoresis in Figure 2. Nucleosome arrays were folded as described in Figure 2b and fixed gently in 0.1% (v/v) glutaraldehyde and stained with 2% (w/v) uranyl acetate. In the background, surrounding the folded chromatin fibres, individual nucleosomes formed from excess histones and competitor DNA are seen. For each nucleosome array three representative examples are shown. The bar corresponds to 100nm.