A change in biophysical properties accompanies heterochromatin formation in mouse embryos.

ABSTRACT: The majority of our genome is composed of repeated DNA sequences that assemble into heterochromatin, a highly compacted structure that constrains their mutational potential. How heterochromatin forms during development and how its structure is maintained are not fully understood. Here, we show that mouse heterochromatin phase-separates after fertilization, during the earliest stages of mammalian embryogenesis. Using high-resolution quantitative imaging and molecular biology approaches, we show that pericentromeric heterochromatin displays properties consistent with a liquid-like state at the two-cell stage, which change at the four-cell stage, when chromocenters mature and heterochromatin becomes silent. Disrupting the condensates results in altered transcript levels of pericentromeric het

SUBMITTER: Guthmann M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10153458 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature