Chromosome Oragnisation
What chromosome is made of? - chromosome is made of chromatin (nucleic acid and protein). - when in mitotic and meiotic stages of cell cycle, chromatin (euchromatin & heterochromatin) stains readily.
Chromosome Packaging Chromatin is organised on three basic levels: - primary (nucloesome) - secondary (solenoid) - tertiary/quaternary (final folding into chromosome shape) A typical eukaryotic chromosome contains 1 to 20 cm of DNA. During metaphase of meiosis/mitosis, this DNA is package into a chromosome with a length of only 1 to 10 m (a condensation of almost fold in length from the naked DNA molecule).
Chromosome Packaging Base pairing
Chromosome Packaging double strand
Chromosome Packaging double helix
Chromosome Packaging beaded string (beads-on-a-string) – nucleosome structure of chromatin
Chromosome Packaging nucleosome
Chromosome Packaging - nucleosome contains histones (2 of each H2A, H2B, H3 and H4, and one H1) - histones (102 amino acid residues; containing up to 20% lysine and arginine) are highly positively charged – to counteract the negative charges of the phosphate groups on the double helix backbone. - modification (acetylation, methylation or phosphorylation) of histone tail will affect the level of positive charge to regulate DNA compaction.
Chromosome Packaging - the diameter of nucleosome (bead) is 11nm bp of DNA associated with one bead, 145 bp are associated with the histone core, 23 bp protected by H1 and 8 to 114bp (depends on species and type of cells) form a linker between beads. - the rate of DNA winding is 1.7 turns per core particle, producing a six- to sevenfold reduction in the length of DNA.
Chromosome Packaging Second level of chromatin organization: solenoid - the nucleosome is supercoiled and organised into a solenoid structure, with 6-7 nucleosomes per turn. - H1 stabilizes the structure of solenoid. - the supercoiling produces a fibre of approximately 30nm in diameter.
Chromosome Packaging Higher order folding of chromatin into chromosome
What are the roles of chromosome packaging?
Roles of Chromosome Packaging Protection Compaction DNA metabolism