Abstract
A novel chromatin structural pattern displaying bipartite and oblate ellipsoid structures orderly arranged along a fiber axis was observed in [human embryo lung] WI-38 cells infected with human cytomegalovirus. This chromatin type coexists with chromatin fibers showing conventional nucleosomes. Each bipartite-oblate structure is 40 nm in length, about 4 times as long as an ordinary nucleosome, and the number of these structures per micrometer (11/.mu.m) is clearly less than that of typical cellular nucleosomes (32/.mu.m).