Cohesion articles from across Nature Portfolio

Chromatin remodelers direct the cohesin loader to nucleosome depleted regions where cohesin accesses chromosomes. Muñoz et al. now show that the cohesin loader in turn is a biochemical activator of a chromatin remodeler, helping to clear nucleosomes

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.

Patients with Cornelia de Lange Syndrome (CdLS) often have mutations in cohesin and its regulators; however, the molecular mechanism driving CdLS phenotypes is not well established. Here the authors reveal system skeletal organization genes are downregulated and show that cohesin and its loader Nipbl have altered and decreased genome-wide localization.

The three-dimensional structure of pericentromeres in budding yeast is defined by convergent genes, which mark pericentromere borders and trap cohesin complexes loaded at centromeres, generating an architecture that allows correct chromosome segregation.

Shugoshin and MAD2 regulate separase-mediated chromosome separation during mitosis, in parallel to a previously identified mechanism involving the anaphase inhibitor securin.