Nucleosomes are one of biology’s most adept packers, capable of fitting some two metres of linear DNA into a nucleus of just 10μm diameter. Not only that, they can carry epigenetic heritable information.
Changes in environmental conditions such as nutrition, exposure to environmental pollutants or parental care during early postnatal life can affect the development, physiology and fitness of offspring. The mechanisms underlying the transmission of such traits over one or multiple generations are largely unknown but DNA methylation, RNA and nucleosomes have been proposed as mediators of such epigenetic inheritance.
Further information: Review of nucleosome input into epigenetic inheritance