Viscosity of chromatin solutions increases with increasing ionic strength.
Increasing the ionic strength of rat liver chromatin solutions above 0.4 M causes increasing viscosity. This indicates transformation of the compact chromatin molecules to more elongated forms. In the range of 0.4-0.5 M ionic strength histone H1 is dissociating continuously from the chromatin and the quaternary structure chromatin unravels. At ionic strength higher than 0.5 M the viscosities of chromatin solutions are furthermore increasing due to structural deformation. Near 0.7 M ionic strength the core histones H2A and H2B begin to dissociate from the chromatin, and the opening of the nucleosome cores leads to increasing elongation of the chromatin molecules.
D000818:Animals; D002843:Chromatin / Q000502:physiology*; D006657:Histones / Q000502:physiology; D009994:Osmolar Concentration; D051381:Rats; D014783:Viscosity
D002843:Chromatin; D006657:Histones