Understanding how the genome is structurally organized as chromatin is essential for understanding its function. Here, we review recent developments that allowed the readdressing of old questions regarding the primary level of chromatin structure, the arrangement of nucleosomes along the DNA and the folding of the nucleosome fiber in nuclear space. In contrast to earlier views of nucleosome arrays as uniformly regular and folded, recent findings reveal heterogeneous array organization and diverse modes of folding. Local structure variations reflect a continuum of functional states characterized by differences in post-translational histone modifications, associated chromatin-interacting proteins and nucleosome-remodeling enzymes.

中文翻译：

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串状核小体阵列排列上的珠子和染色质纤维的折叠。

了解基因组如何以染色质的形式组织起来对于了解其功能至关重要。在这里，我们回顾了最近的发展，这些进展允许重新解决关于染色质结构的主要水平，沿DNA的核小体排列以及核小体纤维在核空间中折叠的旧问题。与先前的核小体阵列一致规则且折叠的观点相反，最近的发现揭示了异质的阵列组织和多种折叠模式。局部结构变化反映了功能状态的连续性，其特征在于翻译后组蛋白修饰，相关的染色质相互作用蛋白和核小体重塑酶的差异。