In other words, a piece of DNA that is 1 meter long will become a "string-of-beads" chromatin fiber just 14 centimeters (about 6 inches) long. Despite this shortening, a half-foot of chromatin is ...

Some histones function as spools for the thread-like DNA to wrap around. Under the microscope in its extended form, chromatin looks like beads on a string. The beads are called nucleosomes.