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Potential Role of Phase Separation of Repetitive DNA in Chromosomal Organization

The basic principles of chromosomal organization in eukaryotic cells remain elusive. Current mainstream research efforts largely concentrate on searching for critical packaging proteins involved in organizing chromosomes. I have taken a different perspective, by considering the role of genomic infor...

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Autor principal: Tang, Shao-Jun
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5664129/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29057826
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/genes8100279
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author Tang, Shao-Jun
author_facet Tang, Shao-Jun
author_sort Tang, Shao-Jun
collection PubMed
description The basic principles of chromosomal organization in eukaryotic cells remain elusive. Current mainstream research efforts largely concentrate on searching for critical packaging proteins involved in organizing chromosomes. I have taken a different perspective, by considering the role of genomic information in chromatins. In particular, I put forward the concept that repetitive DNA elements are key chromosomal packaging modules, and their intrinsic property of homology-based interaction can drive chromatin folding. Many repetitive DNA families have high copy numbers and clustered distribution patterns in the linear genomes. These features may facilitate the interactions among members in the same repeat families. In this paper, the potential liquid–liquid phase transition of repetitive DNAs that is induced by their extensive interaction in chromosomes will be considered. I propose that the interaction among repetitive DNAs may lead to phase separation of interacting repetitive DNAs from bulk chromatins. Phase separation of repetitive DNA may provide a physical mechanism that drives rapid massive changes of chromosomal conformation.
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spelling pubmed-56641292017-11-06 Potential Role of Phase Separation of Repetitive DNA in Chromosomal Organization Tang, Shao-Jun Genes (Basel) Opinion The basic principles of chromosomal organization in eukaryotic cells remain elusive. Current mainstream research efforts largely concentrate on searching for critical packaging proteins involved in organizing chromosomes. I have taken a different perspective, by considering the role of genomic information in chromatins. In particular, I put forward the concept that repetitive DNA elements are key chromosomal packaging modules, and their intrinsic property of homology-based interaction can drive chromatin folding. Many repetitive DNA families have high copy numbers and clustered distribution patterns in the linear genomes. These features may facilitate the interactions among members in the same repeat families. In this paper, the potential liquid–liquid phase transition of repetitive DNAs that is induced by their extensive interaction in chromosomes will be considered. I propose that the interaction among repetitive DNAs may lead to phase separation of interacting repetitive DNAs from bulk chromatins. Phase separation of repetitive DNA may provide a physical mechanism that drives rapid massive changes of chromosomal conformation. MDPI 2017-10-18 /pmc/articles/PMC5664129/ /pubmed/29057826 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/genes8100279 Text en © 2017 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Opinion
Tang, Shao-Jun
Potential Role of Phase Separation of Repetitive DNA in Chromosomal Organization
title Potential Role of Phase Separation of Repetitive DNA in Chromosomal Organization
title_full Potential Role of Phase Separation of Repetitive DNA in Chromosomal Organization
title_fullStr Potential Role of Phase Separation of Repetitive DNA in Chromosomal Organization
title_full_unstemmed Potential Role of Phase Separation of Repetitive DNA in Chromosomal Organization
title_short Potential Role of Phase Separation of Repetitive DNA in Chromosomal Organization
title_sort potential role of phase separation of repetitive dna in chromosomal organization
topic Opinion
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5664129/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29057826
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/genes8100279
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