Nucleosomes are basic units of DNA packing in eukaryotes. Their structure is well conserved from yeast to human and consists of the histone octamer core and 147 bp DNA wrapped around it. Nucleosomes are bound to a majority of the eukaryotic genomic DNA, including its regulatory regions. Hence, they also play a major role in gene regulation. For the latter, their precise positioning on DNA is essential. In the present paper, we describe Galaxy dnpatterntools-software package for nucleosome DNA sequence analysis and mapping. This software will be useful for computational biologists practitioners to conduct more profound studies of gene regulatory mechanisms.
Keywords: Galaxy; chromatin structure; nucleosome; nucleosome positioning sequence (NPS) pattern.