Histones are everywhere

Just the other day I was talking to a researcher on the phone whose work had unexpectedly intersected with nucleosome remodeling. I get the feeling it?s not an uncommon occurrence. I?ve enjoyed following the linkurl:explosion of research;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/23392/ on this topic in the past decade, in part because the analogies are irresistible. As the now pat intro to numerous papers on the subject says, with the sequence of the human genome at hand, scientists are looking for all of the rules to how and when it?s read. And they?ve been looking to the instructions that might be held in chromatin. In linkurl:today?s __Nature__,;http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v441/n7090/full/441143a.html __Nat Neuroscience__ editor Jane Qiu compares patterns of DNA methylation and post translational histone modifications to the key signatures, phrasing, and other instructions that would accompany the musical score that is the genomic symphony. We?ve heard it called a code, a semiotic system like the internationally recognized red,...