The HP1 and BRD4 chimeric constructs help us answer this-- if it were solely the denser placement of affinity polymer blocks, we'd expect the HP1-BRD4 construct (HP1's chromodomain + BRD4's IDR) to also engulf chromatin, but we find the opposite-- it can localize to HC but reduces chrom. density!
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In the case of heterochromatin, is bulk chromatin also excluded?
Re bulk chromatin it's hard to tell in vivo since we can't see H3K9me. But, in vitro work suggests yes. Lucy Brennan combined HP1 with Methylated and unmod nucleosomes--only Me in HP1 drops!
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.18.618981v2.full.pdf