Klug here related results from his X-ray diffraction studies of chromatin, the name given to the chromosomal material when extracted from the nucleus of cells in higher organisms (eukaryotic cells). Chromatin consists of DNA and an equal weight of associated, basic proteins called histones that serve as structural scaffolding. Klug examined the structural organization of chromatin in order to gain an understanding of how DNA is folded into the tight structure seen in a chromosome, how genes are separated by function, and how their expression is controlled.. Nucleosomes, also mentioned in the letter, are distinct complexes of histone and DNA in eukaryotic cells (cells with clearly-defined nuclei). Under the electron microscope they appear as bead-like bodies on a string of DNA.. Klug won the 1982 Nobel Prize in chemistry "for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes," chromatin and nucleosomes in particular.. NOTE: The margins of the second page are cut off in the original photocopied document.
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