Tompitak M de Bruin L Eslami-Mossallam B Schiessel H 2017 About three quarters of our DNA is wrapped into nucleosomes: DNA spools with a protein core. It is well known that the affinity of a given DNA stretch to be incorporated into a nucleosome depends on the geometry and elasticity of the basepair sequence involved, causing the positioning of nucleosomes. Here we show that DNA elasticity can have a much deeper effect on nucleosomes than just their positioning: it affects their "identities". Employing a recently developed computational algorithm, the mutation Monte Carlo method, we design nucleosomes with surprising physical characteristics. Unlike any other nucleosomes studied so far, these nucleosomes are short-lived when put under mechanical tension whereas other physical properties are largely unaffected. This suggests that the nucleosome, the most abundant DNA-protein complex in our cells, might more properly be considered a class of complexes with a wide array of physical properties, and raises the possibility that evolution has shaped various nucleosome species according to their genomic context. application/pdf https://sonar.ch/global/documents/209809 eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1103/PhysRevE.95.052402 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/28618598 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Physical review. E. - 2017 Biomechanical Phenomena Computer Simulation DNA Elasticity Models, Genetic Models, Molecular Monte Carlo Method Nucleosomes Torsion, Mechanical Designing nucleosomal force sensors. http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501