Modeling the functions of condensin in chromosome shaping and segregation.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 29912867.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006152 and PMC identifier 6005465.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The mechanistic details underlying the assembly of rod-shaped chromosomes during mitosis and how they segregate from each other to act as individually mobile units remain largely unknown. Here, we construct a coarse-grained physical model of chromosomal DNA and condensins, a class of large protein complexes that plays key roles in these processes. We assume that condensins have two molecular activities: consecutive loop formation in DNA and inter-condensin attractions. Our simulation demonstrates that both of these activities and their balancing acts are essential for the efficient shaping and segregation of mitotic chromosomes. Our results also demonstrate that the shaping and segregation processes are strongly correlated, implying their mechanistic coupling during mitotic chromosome assembly. Our results highlight the functional importance of inter-condensin attractions in chromosome shaping and segregation.
Medical subject headings
- Adenosine Triphosphatases
- Chromosome Segregation
- Chromosomes
- DNA-Binding Proteins
- Multiprotein Complexes