Biology as Poetry: Genetics

Bacteriophage Ecology Group

Euchromatin

Description of DNA as arrayed into chromatin or slightly higher levels of organization/compacting.

Euchromatin is not considered to be tightly packed DNA. It is also DNA that tends to be transcribable, meaning that it consists of genes or is 'gene dense', and is subject to transcription on an ongoing basis. By contrast is heterochromatin, which is compacted down to a greater extent and therefore both less available for transcription and transcribed to a lesser extent than euchromatin.

The dominant compacting structure of euchromatin is the nucleosome. Euchromatin otherwise can be envisaged as resembling 'beads on a string' with the nucleosome the beads and the less compacted areas the string.

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