Polymer modelling unveils the roles of heterochromatin and nucleolar organizing regions in shaping 3D genome organization in Arabidopsis thaliana.
Nucleic Acids Res, 49(4):1840-1858.
The 3D genome is characterized by a complex organization made of genomic andepigenomic layers with profound implications on gene regulation and cell function.However, the understanding of the fundamental mechanisms driving the crosstalkbetween nuclear architecture and (epi)genomic information is still lacking. Theplant Arabidopsis thaliana is a powerful model organism to address these questionsowing to its compact genome for which we have a rich collection of microscopy,chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C) and ChIP-seq experiments. Using polymermodelling, we investigate the roles of nucleolus formation and epigenomics-driveninteractions in shaping the 3D genome of A. thaliana. By validation of severalpredictions with published data, we demonstrate that self-attracting nucleolarorganizing regions and repulsive constitutive heterochromatin are major mechanismsto regulate the organization of chromosomes. Simulations also suggest thatinterphase chromosomes maintain a partial structural memory of the V-shapes, typicalof (sub)metacentric chromosomes in anaphase. Additionally, self-attraction betweenfacultative heterochromatin regions facilitates the formation of Polycomb bodieshosting H3K27me3-enriched gene-clusters. Since nucleolus and heterochromatin arehighly-conserved in eukaryotic cells, our findings pave the way for a comprehensivecharacterization of the generic principles that are likely to shape and regulate the3D genome in many species.
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