Fokker-Planck description of single nucleosome repositioning by dimeric chromatin remodelers

Abstract : Recent experiments have demonstrated that the ATP-utilizing chromatin assembly and remodeling factor (ACF) is a dimeric, processive motor complex which can move a nucleosome more efficiently towards longer flanking DNA than towards shorter flanking DNA strands, thereby centering an initially ill-positioned nucleosome on DNA substrates. We give a Fokker-Planck description for the repositioning process driven by transitions between internal chemical states of the remodelers. In the chemical states of ATP hydrolysis during which the repositioning takes place a power stroke is considered. The slope of the effective driving potential is directly related to ATP hydrolysis and leads to the unidirectional motion of the nucleosome-remodeler complex along the DNA strand. The Einstein force relation allows us to deduce the ATP-concentration dependence of the diffusion constant of the nucleosome-remodeler complex. We have employed our model to study the efficiency of positioning of nucleosomes as a function of the ATP sampling rate between the two motors which shows that the synchronization between the motors is crucial for the remodeling mechanism to work.