title: Coming to terms with chromatin structure.
abstract: Chromatin, once thought to serve only as a means to package DNA, is now recognized as a major regulator of gene activity. As a result of the wide range of methods used to describe the numerous levels of chromatin organization, the terminology that has emerged to describe these organizational states is often imprecise and sometimes misleading. In this review, we discuss our current understanding of chromatin architecture and propose terms to describe the various biochemical and structural states of chromatin.
authors.affiliation: Program in Genetics and Genome Biology, The Hospital for Sick Children, 686 Bay Street, Toronto, ON, M5G 0A4, Canada.
authors.forename: Liron
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Even-Faitelson
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Vahideh
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Hassan-Zadeh
authors.affiliation: Program in Genetics and Genome Biology, The Hospital for Sick Children, 686 Bay Street, Toronto, ON, M5G 0A4, Canada.
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Baghestani
authors.affiliation: Program in Genetics and Genome Biology, The Hospital for Sick Children, 686 Bay Street, Toronto, ON, M5G 0A4, Canada. david.bazett-jones@sickkids.ca.
authors.forename: David P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Bazett-Jones
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002843:Chromatin / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D042002:Chromatin Assembly and Disassembly; D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone / Q000378:metabolism; D004247:DNA / Q000378:metabolism; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006657:Histones / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D002843:Chromatin; D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone; D006657:Histones; D004247:DNA
keywords: Accessibility; Chromatin; Compaction; Heterochromatin; Higher order chromatin organization; Structure