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theses

Eukaryotic cells contain long DNA molecules (about two meters for a human cell) which are tightly packed inside the micrometric nuclei. Nucleosomes are the basic packaging unit of the DNA which allows this millionfold compactification. A longstanding puzzle is to understand the principles which allow cells to both organize their genomes into chromatin fibers in the crowded space of their nuclei, and also to keep the DNA accessible to many factors and enzymes. With the nucleosomes covering about three quarters of the DNA, their positions are essential because these influence which genes can be regulated by the transcription factors and which cannot. We study physical models which predict the genome-wide organization of the nucleosomes and also the relevant energies which dictate this organization. In the last five years, the study of chromatin knew many important advances. In particular, in the field of nucleosome positioning, new techniques of identifying nucleosomes and the competing DNA-binding factors appeared, as chemical mapping with hydroxyl radicals, ChIP-exo, among others, the resolution of the nucleosome maps increased by using paired-end sequencing, and the price of sequencing an entire genome decreased. We present a rigorous statistical mechanics model which is able to explain the recent experimental results by taking into account nucleosome unwrapping, competition between different DNA-binding proteins, and both the interaction between histones and DNA, and between neighboring histones. We show a series of predictions of our new model, all in agreement with the experimental observations.

ETD_5053

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

Includes vita

by Răzvan V. Chereji

doi:10.7282/T3BP00SD

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.