Abstract
Single-molecule force spectroscopy is a powerful tool to analyze the architecture and interaction of large macromolecular assemblies that are refractory to high-resolution structural interrogations. Here, we describe an optical tweezers–based platform for extracting the mechanical fingerprints of individual nucleosome arrays bound with chromatin-associated complexes, such as the Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2). This platform comprehensively characterizes the diverse binding modes of PRC2 on chromatin, measures their mechanical strengths, and is broadly applicable to the studies of other epigenetic machineries.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Matthew Reynolds for developing the Force-Extension Analyzer and the clustering analysis algorithm. This work is supported by the Robertson Foundation, the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance, and the National Institutes of Health (DP2HG010510).
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Leicher, R., Liu, S. (2022). Probing the Interaction Between Chromatin and Chromatin-Associated Complexes with Optical Tweezers. In: Gennerich, A. (eds) Optical Tweezers. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2478. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2229-2_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2229-2_11
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