Higher-order chromatin structure: bridging physics and biology
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Mirny_Higher-order.pdf
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594.21 KB
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Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
1241e80c174ea87bf67d0f5dc98ff0d3
Author(s)
Fudenberg, Geoffrey
Mirny, Leonid A.
Date Issued
April 2012
Journal
Current Opinion in Genetics & Development
Publisher
Elsevier
Citation
Fudenberg, Geoffrey, and Leonid A. Mirny. "Higher-order chromatin structure: bridging physics and biology." Current Opinion in Genetics & Development 2012, 22:115–124.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Advances in microscopy and genomic techniques have provided new insight into spatial chromatin organization inside of the nucleus. In particular, chromosome conformation capture data has highlighted the relevance of polymer physics for high-order chromatin organization. In this context, we review basic polymer states, discuss how an appropriate polymer model can be determined from experimental data, and examine the success and limitations of various polymer models of higher-order interphase chromatin organization. By taking into account topological constraints acting on the chromatin fiber, recently developed polymer models of interphase chromatin can reproduce the observed scaling of distances between genomic loci, chromosomal territories, and probabilities of contacts between loci measured by chromosome conformation capture methods. Polymer models provide a framework for the interpretation of experimental data as ensembles of conformations rather than collections of loops, and will be crucial for untangling functional implications of chromosomal organization.
MIT Department
Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gde.2012.01.006
