Progressive chromosome shape changes during cell divisions
More about Open Access at the CrickAuthors list
Yasutaka Kakui Yoshiharu Kusano Tereza Clarence Maya Lopez Todd Fallesen Toru Hirota Bhavin S Khatri Frank UhlmannAbstract
Mitotic chromosomes give genome portions the required compaction and mechanical stability for faithful inheritance during cell divisions. They are shaped by the chromosomal condensin complex. Here, we record human chromosome dimensions from their appearance in prophase over successive times in a mitotic arrest. Chromosomes first appear long and uniformly thin. Then, individual chromosome arms become discernible, which continuously shorten and thicken-the longer a chromosome arm, the thicker it becomes. In the search for a molecular explanation of this behavior, given uniform condensin density, the popular loop extrusion model provides no obvious means by which longer chromosome arms become thicker. Instead, we find that simulations of an alternative loop capture model recapitulate key features of our observations, with re-arranging chromatin rosettes underpinning the gradually developing arm length-to-width relationship. Our analyses portray chromosomes as out-of-equilibrium structures in the process of transitioning towards, but on biologically relevant time scales not typically reaching, steady state.
Journal details
Journal
EMBO Reports
Volume
26
Issue number
21
Pages
5199-5215
Available online
Publication date
Full text links
Publisher website (DOI)
10.1038/s44319-025-00577-4
Figshare
View on figshare
Europe PubMed Central
40987898
Pubmed
40987898
Data and code
Keywords
Type of publication
Publishing history
The publication was previously a preprint.
View preprint
