Fig. 10

Analysis of the DNA-histones interactions. Panel a Key tail/DNA interactions of the histone H4 tail. Distance map of tail residues and the phosphate group of each nucleotide for the three most populated clusters of the H4 tail. Orange and green boxes indicate the two strands of DNA. Blue circles and red circles indicate contacts between lysines and arginines, respectively, and DNA phosphate (cutoff 0.3 nm). Green numbers denote the number of neutralized charges. Panel b Results of a cluster analysis of the H4 tail trajectory. Probability and conformations of the cluster representative of the three most populated clusters are shown. The cutoff was 0.2 nm and the last part of the trajectory (80–120 ns) was used. The two DNA strands involved in binding of the H4 tail are colored orange and green. Spheres represent phosphate groups of DNA, and lysine and arginine residues are colored blue and red, respectively. The gray sphere is the end of the tail connected to the histone core. Yellow lines indicate interactions between the histone tail and the DNA. Radius of gyration, Rg, and end-to-end distance are given for each cluster (adapted from [27] with written permission given by the original license holders)