Monte Carlo simulation of chromatin fiber conformation affected by ionic strength

Abstract

In this paper, using Monte Carlo simulation, we obtain different structures of chromatin fibers with different ionic concentration. The result shows that as the ionic concentration is increased, the fiber undergoes a conformational change from sawtooth state to super-helix state. The structural parameters obtained by simulation agree well with the experimental results, indicating that our model is useful in explaining the conformational change of chromatin fibers in different ionic solutions.