The structure of a virus-encoded nucleosome
- 29 April 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology
- Vol. 28 (5), 413-417
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41594-021-00585-7
Abstract
Certain large DNA viruses, including those in the Marseilleviridae family, encode histones. Here we show that fused histone pairs Hβ-Hα and Hδ-Hγ from Marseillevirus are structurally analogous to the eukaryotic histone pairs H2B-H2A and H4-H3. These viral histones form ‘forced’ heterodimers, and a heterotetramer of four such heterodimers assembles DNA to form structures virtually identical to canonical eukaryotic nucleosomes.Keywords
Funding Information
- David and Lucile Packard Foundation
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute
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