According to the 'classical' view, histone modifications are established in an identical fashion on both copies of each of the four core histones, resulting in 'symmetrically' modified nucleosomes. Now, a new study challenges this notion by demonstrating that asymmetric histone modifications exist on individual mononucleosomes in native chromatin and that symmetric and asymmetric modifications signal different biological outcomes, suggesting a radically expanded histone code.
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van Rossum, B., Fischle, W. & Selenko, P. Asymmetrically modified nucleosomes expand the histone code. Nat Struct Mol Biol 19, 1064–1066 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.2433
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.2433
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