New research led by the Liu Lab shows how Cohesin - a protein that helps the genome maintain its structure - prevents genes in different parts of the genome from being randomly co-activated in single cells, findings that help explain how the 3D organization of the genome controls development.
The first movie shows actively transcribed genes on Chromosome 2 in mice, both before Cohesin depletion (left) and after Cohesin depletion (right). Actively transcribed genes are organized to individual, well separated puncta before Cohesin depletion, while Cohesin loss caused extensive clustering of these puncta, leading to the formation of larger and more connected structures in the nucleus.
The second movie shows Mediator protein hubs - clusters of Mediator proteins that regulate gene transcription -- before (left) and after (right) acute Cohesin removal. Acute Cohesin removal induces extensive structural changes of Mediator hubs with a significant increase in average hub size.
Credit: Dong et al.
Read the paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41588-024-01852-1