title: [Heterochromatin and single-strand DNA breaks (a hypothesis)].
abstract: A hypothesis is put forward which explains the known heterochromatin properties: dense DNA packing, transcriptional inactivity, a tendency for aggregation (adhesiveness) and ectopic contacts. The basic assumption of the hypothesis is that the DNA molecules in heterochromatin are topologically open and contain single-strand breaks in the regions with the same or similar base sequence.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia. gruzdev@cgi.nsk.su
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Gruzdev
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004249:DNA Damage; D006570:Heterochromatin / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D006570:Heterochromatin