Nuclease sensitivity of postreplicated chromatin from Ehrlich ascites tumour cells

Abstract

Chromatin appears to undergo structural modification after replication and before integration into bulk chromatin. In ascites cells, postreplicated chromatin displays a transient resistance to digestion with micrococcal nuclease. This resistance may be correlated with a shorter DNA repeat length (178 base pairs) than that found in bulk chromatin (187 base pairs). Selective labelling or selective digestion of DNA sequence classes could not account for these observations. In both bulk and postreplicated chromatin, three electrophoretic types of mononucleosomes were found. Postreplicated mononucleosome types showed selective sensitivities to nuclease digestion whereas bulk mononucleosome types did not.