Spatial confinement is a major determinant of the folding landscape of human chromosomes.

ABSTRACT: The global architecture of the cell nucleus and the spatial organization of chromatin play important roles in gene expression and nuclear function. Single-cell imaging and chromosome conformation capture-based techniques provide a wealth of information on the spatial organization of chromosomes. However, a mechanistic model that can account for all observed scaling behaviors governing long-range chromatin interactions is missing. Here we describe a model called constrained self-avoiding chromatin (C-SAC) for studying spatial structures of chromosomes, as the available space is a key determinant of chromosome folding. We studied large ensembles of model chromatin chains with appropriate fiber diameter, persistence length and excluded volume under spatial confinement. We show that the equili

SUBMITTER: Gursoy G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4117743 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature