What does it mean a H4K20me1 has a diffuse profile?

Question

[tonja.r]

From the paper:

H2A.Z is representative of localized signals. H4K20me1 shows the typical behavior of chromatin modifications with a diffuse profile.

What does it mean a 'diffuse profile'? Does it mean that the data (read coverage) for such modifications are not that striking as for ChIP-seq for TF?

Answer 1

[Ming Tommy Tang]

TFs have specific binding DNA sequences. So the ChIP-seq signal will be sharp.

In comparison, histone modification can be broad (diffuse), extending to the gene body (H3K36me3 etc).

RNApol2 can be both sharp(promoter stalling) and diffuse(elongation).