Nucleosomes in gene regulation: theoretical approaches

TL;DR

This paper reviews theoretical biophysical and bioinformatics models of nucleosome arrangements and their role in gene regulation, emphasizing recent concepts and hypotheses in epigenetics.

Contribution

It provides a simplified overview of mathematical approaches to nucleosome positioning and gene regulation, highlighting current theoretical perspectives and key hypotheses.

Findings

Discussion of nucleosome role in gene regulation

Overview of mathematical modeling approaches

Analysis of epigenetic regulation questions

Abstract

This work reviews current theoretical approaches of biophysics and bioinformatics for the description of nucleosome arrangements in chromatin and transcription factor binding to nucleosomal organized DNA. The role of nucleosomes in gene regulation is discussed from molecular-mechanistic and biological point of view. In addition to classical problems of this field, actual questions of epigenetic regulation are discussed. The authors selected for discussion what seem to be the most interesting concepts and hypotheses. Mathematical approaches are described in a simplified language to attract attention to the most important directions of this field.