DNA folding: structural and mechanical properties of the two-angle model for chromatin

Abstract

We present a theoretical analysis of the structural and mechanical properties of the 30-nm chromatin fiber. Our study is based on the two-angle model introduced by Woodcock et al. (Woodcock, C. L., S. A. Grigoryev, R. A. Horowitz, and N. Whitaker. 1993. PNAS 90:9021-9025) that describes the chromatin fiber geometry in terms of the entry-exit angle of the nucleosomal DNA and the rotational setting of the neighboring nucleosomes with respect to each other. We explore analytically the different structures that arise from this building principle, and demonstrate that the geometry with the highest density is close to the one found in native chromatin fibers under physiological conditions. On the basis of this model we calculate mechanical properties of the fiber under stretching. We obtain expressions for the stress-strain characteristics which show good agreement with the results of recent stretching experiments (Cui, Y., and C. Bustamante. 2000. PNAS 97:127-132) and computer simulations (Katritch, V., C. Bustamante, and W. K. Olson. 2000. J. Mol. Biol. 295:29-40), and which provide simple physical insights into correlations between the structural and elastic properties of chromatin.