Open Collections

Models that include supercoiling of topological domains reproduce several known features of interphase chromosomes

Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery

Understanding the structure of interphase chromosomes is essential to elucidate regulatory mechanisms of gene expression. During recent years, high-throughput DNA sequencing expanded the power of chromosome conformation capture (3C) methods that provide information about reciprocal spatial proximity of chromosomal loci. Since 2012 it is known that entire chromatin in interphase chromosomes is organized into regions with strongly increased frequency of internal contacts. These regions, with the average size of about 1Mb were named topological domains. More recent studies demonstrated presence of unconstrained supercoiling in interphase chromosomes. Using Brownian dynamics simulations, we show here that by including supercoiling into models of topological domains one can reproduce and thus provide possible explanations of several experimentally observed characteristics of interphase chromosomes, such as their complex contact maps, for example. Work in collaboration with Fabrizio Benedetti, Julien Dorier, Yannis Burnier.

Mathematics; Biology and other natural sciences; Manifolds and cell complexes; Mathematical biology

video/mp4

Author affiliation: University of Lausanne

2014-08-07

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/49739

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/