Nucleosomes form heterogeneous groups in vivo, named clutches. Clutches are smaller
and less dense in mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) compared to neural progenitor cells
(NPCs). Using coarse-grained modeling of the pluripotency Pou5f1 gene, we show that the
genome-wide clutch differences between ESCs and NPCs can be reproduced at a single
gene locus. Larger clutch formation in NPCs is associated with changes in the compaction
and internucleosome contact probability of the Pou5f1 fiber. Using single-molecule tracking …