User:Tom Bygott/Nucleosomics

Nucleosomics is the study of nucleosomes. A nucleosome is the basic unit of DNA packaging in eukaryotes, consisting of a segment of DNA wound in sequence around four histone protein cores. In living cells, nucleosomes form part of the structure of chromatin, and their features, such as DNA methylation, histone modification and histone variants are a key area of scientific research in the rapidly growing field of epigenetics.

A nucleosome


When a cell dies by apoptosis, a form of programmed cell death, nucleosomes are released alongside other parts of the cell nucleus, and these can find their way into the bloodstream and into other biofliuds. Determining the features of these free nucleosomes is a new area of study of diseases, particularly cancer.