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Women’s contribution in understanding how topoisomerases, supercoiling, and transcription control genome organization

One of the biggest paradoxes in biology is that human genome is roughly 2 m long, while the nucleus containing it is almost one million times smaller. To fit into the nucleus, DNA twists, bends and folds into several hierarchical levels of compaction. Still, DNA has to maintain a high degree of acce...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Martin, Laura, Neguembor, Maria Victoria, Cosma, Maria Pia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10083264/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37051322
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmolb.2023.1155825
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author Martin, Laura
Neguembor, Maria Victoria
Cosma, Maria Pia
author_facet Martin, Laura
Neguembor, Maria Victoria
Cosma, Maria Pia
author_sort Martin, Laura
collection PubMed
description One of the biggest paradoxes in biology is that human genome is roughly 2 m long, while the nucleus containing it is almost one million times smaller. To fit into the nucleus, DNA twists, bends and folds into several hierarchical levels of compaction. Still, DNA has to maintain a high degree of accessibility to be readily replicated and transcribed by proteins. How compaction and accessibility co-exist functionally in human cells is still a matter of debate. Here, we discuss how the torsional stress of the DNA helix acts as a buffer, regulating both chromatin compaction and accessibility. We will focus on chromatin supercoiling and on the emerging role of topoisomerases as pivotal regulators of genome organization. We will mainly highlight the major breakthrough studies led by women, with the intention of celebrating the work of this group that remains a minority within the scientific community.
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spelling pubmed-100832642023-04-11 Women’s contribution in understanding how topoisomerases, supercoiling, and transcription control genome organization Martin, Laura Neguembor, Maria Victoria Cosma, Maria Pia Front Mol Biosci Molecular Biosciences One of the biggest paradoxes in biology is that human genome is roughly 2 m long, while the nucleus containing it is almost one million times smaller. To fit into the nucleus, DNA twists, bends and folds into several hierarchical levels of compaction. Still, DNA has to maintain a high degree of accessibility to be readily replicated and transcribed by proteins. How compaction and accessibility co-exist functionally in human cells is still a matter of debate. Here, we discuss how the torsional stress of the DNA helix acts as a buffer, regulating both chromatin compaction and accessibility. We will focus on chromatin supercoiling and on the emerging role of topoisomerases as pivotal regulators of genome organization. We will mainly highlight the major breakthrough studies led by women, with the intention of celebrating the work of this group that remains a minority within the scientific community. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-03-27 /pmc/articles/PMC10083264/ /pubmed/37051322 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmolb.2023.1155825 Text en Copyright © 2023 Martin, Neguembor and Cosma. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Molecular Biosciences
Martin, Laura
Neguembor, Maria Victoria
Cosma, Maria Pia
Women’s contribution in understanding how topoisomerases, supercoiling, and transcription control genome organization
title Women’s contribution in understanding how topoisomerases, supercoiling, and transcription control genome organization
title_full Women’s contribution in understanding how topoisomerases, supercoiling, and transcription control genome organization
title_fullStr Women’s contribution in understanding how topoisomerases, supercoiling, and transcription control genome organization
title_full_unstemmed Women’s contribution in understanding how topoisomerases, supercoiling, and transcription control genome organization
title_short Women’s contribution in understanding how topoisomerases, supercoiling, and transcription control genome organization
title_sort women’s contribution in understanding how topoisomerases, supercoiling, and transcription control genome organization
topic Molecular Biosciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10083264/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37051322
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmolb.2023.1155825
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