Evolutionary innovations in chromatin biology have been recently discovered through the study of fungi. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a prion form of a deacetylase complex assembles over subtelomeric domains that produces a heritable gene expression state that enables resistance to stress. In Candida albicans, stress triggers adaptive chromosome destabilization via erasure a centromeric histone H3, CENP-A; a process that cooperates with a newly evolved H2A variant lacking a mitotic phosphorylation site. Finally, in Cryptococcus neoformans, the loss of a cytosine DNA methyltransferase at least 50 million years ago has enabled the Darwinian evolution of methylation patterns over geological timescales. These studies reveal a remarkable genetic and epigenetic evolutionary plasticity of the chromatin fiber, despite the highly conserved structure of the nucleosome.

最近通过对真菌的研究发现了染色质生物学的进化创新。在酿酒酵母中，脱乙酰酶复合物的朊病毒形式组装在亚端粒结构域上，产生可遗传的基因表达状态，从而能够抵抗压力。在白色念珠菌中，压力通过擦除着丝粒组蛋白 H3、CENP-A 来触发适应性染色体不稳定；与缺乏有丝分裂磷酸化位点的新进化的 H2A 变体合作的过程。最后，在新型隐球菌，至少在 5000 万年前，胞嘧啶 DNA 甲基转移酶的丢失使得甲基化模式在地质时间尺度上的达尔文进化成为可能。这些研究揭示了染色质纤维的显着遗传和表观遗传进化可塑性，尽管核小体的结构高度保守。