CHD1 is a conserved chromatin remodelling enzyme important for transcription.
An NMR structure of an unrecognised helical domain (CHCT) in CHD1 is reported.
The CHCT domain can bind DNA and nucleosomes.
The CHCT domain is also found in the uncharacterised C17orf64 proteins.
These results enhance our structural understanding of CHD1 enzymes.