Degree Type
Thesis
Date of Award
2016
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology
Major
Biochemistry
First Advisor
Michael Shogren-Knaak
Abstract
Chromatin, the native form of eukaryotic DNA, organizes the genome and regulates its use. Assembled chromatin model systems provide a powerful tool for understanding the complex structural and functional properties of chromatin. Chromatin is structurally diverse within the cell, yet current in vitro model systems do not reflect this diversity. Additionally, generating new model systems has traditionally been challenging. Here we apply the ideas of solid-phase synthesis to show that sequential ligation of DNA fragments readily generates a wide range of chromatin model systems. Using DNA fragments containing one or more nucleosome positioning sites, we generated DNA templates for assembling nucleosomal arrays containing from one to forty-eight nucleosomes, where the spacing between nucleosomes was also varied. We successfully demonstrate that the nucleosomal arrays generated are well saturated and compositionally well defined. Altogether, these strategies provide a means to vary the length and composition of chromatin models systems at the level of individual nucleosomes, and provide new tool for probing chromatin structure and function.
Copyright Owner
Margaret K. Gannon
Copyright Date
2016
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
File Size
38 pages
Recommended Citation
Gannon, Margaret K., "Solid phase synthesis strategies for generating novel chromatin model systems" (2016). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 16061.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/16061
