Variable center to center distance of nucleosomes in chromatin.

The length of linker DNA between nucleosomes may be determined by exonuclease digestion of nucleosome dimers and gel electrophoresis of the resulting DNA. This procedure must be applied to histone 1-containing nucleosomes to avoid rearrangement. The results show a highly variable length of linker DNA within a rat liver cell. One possible interpretation, in terms of a statistical distribution of nucleosomes, leads to a simple explanation of why the average length of linker DNA varies among tissues and organisms.