TECHNOLOGY FEATURE
21 February 2022

Revealing chromosome contours, one dot at a time

Methods that meld imaging with sequencing are uncovering the organizational principles of the genome — and how it influences cell fates.

Amber Dance⁰

Amber Dance
1. Amber Dance is a freelance writer in Los Angeles, California.
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3D representation of a single nucleus with chromosomes represented by different coloured spheres arranged in space — 3D reconstruction of a nucleus. Each colour represents a different chromosome, and each dot is a gene location. Credit: Y. Takei *et al*./*Science*

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Someone has drawn a mascot on the whiteboard in Mitchell Guttman’s molecular-biology laboratory at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. It looks like a tangled ball of blue yarn a cat would chase, complete with eyes, jaunty grin, arms and legs.

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Nature 602, 713-715 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00496-7

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