UC San Diego

An important stage of gene regulation in eukaryotic cells is the packing and unpacking of chromatin. Chromatin is formed by nucleosomes, which contain DNA that wraps around basic proteins called histones. The basic repeating structure of chromatin is the nucleosome containing two H2A/H2B hetero-dimers and an H3/H4 hetero-tetramer. The goal of my thesis is to have heterogonous expression, purification and assembly of human histones in vivo and the nucleosome core particles were analyzed using single particle electron microscopy technique