When chromatin meets splicing

Using bioinformatics analysis of previously published global genome deep-sequencing data, two papers now show that DNA sequences associated with nucleosomes are preferentially located in exons. The correlation between nucleosome distribution and the exon-intron organization of genes may have a key role in exon recognition at the pre-mRNA level during co-transcriptional splicing, consistent with previous findings indicating chromatin-mediated regulation of alternative splicing.