more peaks of the 10.4 xn series can be seen in each case. As in Fig. 1, the most representative curves are selected for each dinucleotide. Of the twelve plots, the lowest amplitude oscillations are observed for dinucleotides of S. cerevisiae (CA, CC, AG and TA). However, respective excess values over background in these cases all exceed 2.9 STD (see Methods), which is in full agreement with the estimates first made by Cohanim et al. [6]. The first maxima in the examples shown are observed typically at position 1061. The precise positioning of most of the peaks observed in Fig. 1 and 2 identifies the 10.4 base repeat of nucleosome DNA. It is clearly distinct from sequence periods 10.0 and 11.0 bases, characteristic for Archaea and Eubacteria, respectively [17], and from the structural period 10.55 bases for free DNA (e.g. in [10]). The figures also demonstrate that each one of the 16 dinucleotides may contribute to the overall 10.4 base periodicity, though not in every genome and not to the same degree. In Table 1 the most prominent periodic dinucleotides of the thirteen species are marked by a ‘‘+’’. At least three clear peaks of the 10.4 xn series are present in all respective plots for the positive cases. The periodical AA and TT dinucleotides dominate (clearly visible in 9 genomes of 13). CG and GC are the next most popular ones (6 genomes). In human sequences, the CG dinucleotide is the only recognizable periodical component (see Table 1), which is observed for the first time, in this work. The least prominent periodicity is displayed by the dinucleotides AC, GT (in C. elegans only) and TA (in S. cerevisiae only) as shown in Fig. 2 and Table 1. At the same time, these two genomes display the largest repertoires of periodical dinucleotides. This confirms the earlier result obtained by Cohanim et al. for yeast [6]. The mouse genome does not show any obvious periodicity, neither in unfiltered nor in repeat-filtered sequence. Some weak oscillations may be detected, perhaps, by more sophisticated analysis. Discussion From our calculations it became evident, that each one of the 16 dinucleotides shows the 10.4 bp periodical positioning in several or at least one of the genomes analyzed. However, not every genome displays a periodicity, the mouse genome being such an exception. According to Table 1, there seems to be no visible Table 1. Dinucleotides displaying a clear 10.4 base periodicity in the set of thirteen eukaryotic genomes. D. melanogaster + + + + 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 S. cerevisiae C. elegans A. thaliana D. rerio C. albicans A. mellifera A. gambiae C. reinhardtii G. gallus D. discoideum H. sapiens M. musculus AA TT CG GC CA TG AG CT AT GG CC GA TC AC GT TA + + + + + + + + + + + + + 2 2 + + + + + + + + + + 2 2 + + + + 2 + + 2 + + + 2 2 + + 2 2 2 2 2 2 + + 2 + 2 2 2 2 2 + + 2 2 2 2 2 + + 2 2 + + 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 + + + + 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 + + 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 + + 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 + + 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 + 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 + 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0007654.t001 Nucleosome Positioning correlation of sizes of dinucleotide repertoires with taxonomy. We demonstrate for the first time that CG dinucleotides show a strong positional periodicity, best seen in the CG-rich genome of the honey bee A. mellifera and in D. melanogaster (data not shown). The observed oscillations follow the nucleosome DNA period of 10.4 bases. This confirms in the most straightforward way the participation of the CG dinucleotides together with other elements in the formation of the 10.4 base periodical nucleosome DNA sequence pattern. Surprisingly, when analyzing the human genome in the same way, a clear periodicity of dinucleotides is visible exclusively for the dinucleotide CG. AA/TT dinucleotide positions come out periodical in nine of thirteen genomes tested. The warm blooded vertebrates G. gallus, H. sapiens, M. musculus and the amoeba D. discoideum make a notable exception here. It has been reported earlier [18–19] that human nucleosome DNA sequences do not display AA/TT periodicity. Rather, RR/YY dinucleotides appear periodically in the nucleosome DNA. However, our analysis of the human genomic sequences shows lack of the RR/YY periodicity. The CG periodicity in human sequences has become evident now for the first time. Together with the spectacular example of the A. mellifera genome, where CG dinucleotides are 1.7 times more frequent than the genomic base composition would suggest [20], the CG signal in the human genome (with CGs considerably underrepresented) confirms the role which these dinucleotides, apparently, play in the nucleosome positioning. Participation of CG in the positioning is of special value because of the duality of the CG dinucleotides, in which the cytosines can be either methylated or non-methylated. The nucleosomes formed on CG containing sequences may well have an ‘‘epigenetic’’ property [16], their stability and positions being modulated by the CG methylation, this way possibly influencing the expression level of genes located nearby. The ‘‘weakest’’ dinucleotides in terms of periodicity are AC, GT and TA. This may or may not mean that, actually, the periodicity in these cases is just due to passive sequence exclusion effects caused by strong periodicities of other dinucleotides [5]. Indeed, the S. cerevisiae genome shows strong periodicities of other dinucleotides. It is also quite possible, that TA elements have deformational properties very much suitable for nucleosome positioning. In strong nucleosome forming DNA fragments extracted from a pool of synthetic random sequences, TA, indeed, is frequent and displays a clear periodicity [21]. However, since TA steps are characterized by lowest stability [22] it remains open as yet whether such sequences with periodical potential kinks at TA may reside in natural nucleosomes as well. Our calculation results (Table 1) show that in every genome a different set of periodical dinucleotides is prominent. Accordingly, one would expect that a number of different nucleosome positioning dinucleotide repertoires exist. Each one of them may appear as the dominant one at the whole-genome scale, depending on the sequence composition of the organism. With this in mind, it seems very reasonable to propose that different genomic regions may well harbor different nucleosome positioning repertoires, depending on several factors. These could be the dinucleotide frequencies, the G+C content [23], the presence and type of repeating sequences which may attract strong nucleosomes or impose their sequence structure on the positioning signal, and possibly also some other species-specific sequence biases. The eukaryotic genome sequences are massively involved in nucleosomes, in protein-coding and even more in non-coding sequences. The richness of the dinucleotide repertoires observed strongly points to direct structural aspects of single nucleotide polymorphisms, SNPs, and SNP haplotypes, with all their functional implications. Nucleosome positioning studies may well PLoS ONE | www.plosone.org 4 November 2009 | Volume 4 | Issue 11 | e7654