Chromosome condensation articles from across Nature Portfolio

Species divergence in condensin regulation and centromere organization between the mice Mus musculus domesticus and Mus spretus drives chromosome decondensation and mis-segregation in their F₁ hybrid oocytes, reducing female fertility.

Histone deacetylation at the onset of mitosis induces a chromatin-intrinsic phase transition that endows chromosomes with the physical characteristics necessary for their precise movement during cell division.

This protocol combines in situ chromosome conformation capture with labeling of nascent DNA with the synthetic nucleoside 4-thio-thymidine to generate genome-wide contact probability maps within and across sister chromatids in mammalian cells.

Piazza et al. report that following double-strand break (DSB) formation in S. cerevisiae, cohesin at DSBs facilitates local homology search during repair by homologous recombination, while suppressing DSB contacts with genome-wide double-strand DNAs.

Zhang et al. identify a nuclear role for the glycolytic enzyme TPI1 in connecting nutrient status and cell cycle status to global histone acetylation.

After mitosis chromosomes are drastically reshaped. A study now charts the dynamics of this conformational change at high temporal resolution. During the shift from one loop-forming complex (condensin) to another (cohesin), an intermediate chromosome folding state exists in which neither of these complexes are associated with chromatin.

Condensin complexes drive mitotic chromosome formation by structuring chromatin into nested loops and organizing them along a central, helical scaffold.

In yeast, mitotic chromosome condensation is achieved bycis-chromatin looping, a process in which cohesin and condensin have distinct roles.

The oligomerization of scaffold attachment factor A through its binding to chromatin-associated RNAs regulates the structure of interphase chromosomes.