May 15 (UPI) — Until now, scientists weren’t sure how gene activation mechanisms avoided nucleosomes, the bodyguards tasked with keeping DNA turned off.

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, however, have pinpointed a key factor responsible for unraveling nucleosome structures and allowing genes to be activated.

Geneticists described the newly identified nucleosome destabilizing factor, or NDF, this week in the journal Genes and Development.