First time, every time: nucleosomes at a promoter can determine the probability of gene activation

Abstract

Transcription factor binding sites are found in either nucleosome-free or nucleosome-embedded locations, thus in vivo relationships between nucleosome position and gene activation are not fully understood. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Bai et al. show that binding sites located in nucleosome depleted regions guarantee high reliability, not amplitude, of promoter firing.