Building chromosomes without bricks

Imagine stowing all 401 km of the London Underground rail network into a suitcase. That's equivalent to cramming four meters of DNA that harbor the genetic blueprint of our lives into a micrometer-sized human cell nucleus. During cell division, this enormous amount of DNA is packed into neatly...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2017-06, Vol.356 (6344), p.1233-1234
Main Authors: Kakui, Yasutaka, Uhlmann, Frank
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aluminum Silicates
Bricks
Cell division
Chromosomes
Condensin
Construction Materials
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
Genetics
Humans
Measuring instruments
Meters
Molecular machines
Networks
Nuclei
Nuclei (cytology)
Nucleosomes
Packaging
PERSPECTIVES
Rail transportation
Segregations
Underground railways
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Summary:Imagine stowing all 401 km of the London Underground rail network into a suitcase. That's equivalent to cramming four meters of DNA that harbor the genetic blueprint of our lives into a micrometer-sized human cell nucleus. During cell division, this enormous amount of DNA is packed into neatly shaped and structurally stable chromosomes, which allows the faithful segregation of genetic material to daughter cells. This packaging task relies on the work of sophisticated molecular machines (1). On page 1284 of this issue, Shintomi et al. (2) report that chromosomes can be assembled based on condensin-containing axes, challenging the long-held view that nucleosomes are essential to chromosome architecture.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.aan8090