Question

The length of linker DNA segments varies somewhat among organisms. The length of the linker DNA in sea urchin is 110 base pairs. Suppose it were possible to move the entire region of DNA (92,672 base pairs long) from Drosophila melanogaster into the genome of a sea urchin. Approximately how many nucleosomes would be required to organize this region into the 10nm fiber structure?

Answer 1

Answer:

362 nucleosomes

Explanation:

A nucleosome repeat is made up of the DNA (146 bp) wrapped around the core nucleosome particle and the linker DNA (110 bp as in this situation). We can conclude that, every repeat stands for 256 (146 + 110) base pairs of DNA.

We are given the length of the entire region to be 92,672 bp long,

To determine the number of nucleosomes to organize the region into the 10nm fiber structure

Let,

Number of nucleosomes =

the length of the entire region

------------------- -----

base pairs of DNA.

= 92,672

-------

256

= 362 nucleosomes

Therefore, 362 nucleosomes is needed to structure the region into the 10nm fiber structure.