Y O T I C C H R O M O S O M E S

EUKAR
 EUKARYOTIC CHROMOSOMES CONTAIN AN ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF DNA
RELATIVE TO THEIR CONDENSED LENGTH. EACH HUMAN CHROMOSOME
AVERAGES ABOUT 2X 108 NUCLEOTIDE PAIRS.

IF EXTENDED, EACH DNA MOLECULE WOULD BE ABOUT 6 CM LONG, THOUSANDS

OF TIMES LONGER THAN THE CELL DIAMETER.

THIS CHROMOSOME AND 45 OTHER HUMAN CHROMOSOMES FIT IN TO THE

NUCLEUS.
HISTONE

HISTONE PROTEINS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE FIRST LEVEL OF DNA

PACKAGING. THEIR POSITIVELY CHARGED AMINO ACIDS BIND TIGHTLY TO
NEGATIVELY CHARGED DNA.

THE FIVE TYPES OF HISTONES ARE VERY SIMILAR FROM ONE EUKARYOTE TO
ANOTHER AND ARE EVEN PRESENT IN BACTERIA.

UNFOLDED CHROMATIN HAS THE APPEARANCE OF BEADS ON A STRING, A

NUCLEOSOME, IN WHICH DNA WINDS AROUND A CORE OF HISTONE PROTEINS.
 THE BEADED STRING SEEMS TO REMAIN SENTIALLY INTACT THROUGH OUT THE CELL
CYCLE.

HISTONES LEAVE THE DNA ONLY TRANSIENTLY DURING DNA REPLICATION.

THEY STAY WITH THE DNA DURING TRANSCRIPTION. BY CHANGING SHAPE AND POSITION,
NUCLEOSOMES ALLOW RNA SYNTHESIZING POLYMERASES TO MOVE ALONG THE DNA
 AS CHROMOSOMES ENTER MITOSIS THE BEADED STRING UNDERGOES
HIGHER-ORDER PACKING.

THE BEADED STRING COILS TO FORM THE 30-NM CHROMATIN FIBER.

THIS FIBER FORMS LOOPED DOMAINS ATTACHED TO A SCAFFOLD OF NON-
HISTONE PROTEINS.
 CHROMATIN PACKAGING

HEIRARCHY
LEVEL 1:

NUCLEOSOME FORMATION

LEVEL 2:

30 NM FIBER

LEVEL 3:

NUCLEAR SCAFFOLDING

LEVEL 4:

MITOTIC (METAPHASE)

CHROMOSOME
LEVEL ONE : BUILDING BLOCKS OF CHROMATIN :
NUCLEOSOMES
NUCLEOSOMES ARE COMPOSED OF HISTONES

2/3 of chromatin mass is protein

95% of chromatin protein are histones
H1,H2A,H2B,H3,H4
 NUCLEOSOME STRUCTURE

Nucleosome core particle: octamer of histones plus

Chromatosome: octamer of histones plus ~146 bp DNA
~146 bp DNA AND linker histone H1
(this term rarely used now)
 LEVEL TWO : THE 30NM FIBER

Requires Histone H1
Compaction ratio approx. 100 fold
 LEVEL THREE: NUCLEAR
SCAFFOLDING

Not well understood

Organization is not random; involved sequence elements (red dots), more non-
histone chromatin proteins and gethering to the nuclear envelope and matrix
 GENOME CONTORTIONS DURING THE CELL CYCLE

Time for cell division: no gene Time for replication,

expression transcription
METAPHASE CHROMATIN: LEVEL 4 PACKAGING: FULLY
CONDENSED
 INTERPHASE CHROMATIN IS GENERALLY MUCH LESS CONDENSED THAN THE CHROMATIN OF
MITOSIS. WHILE THE 30-NM FIBERS AND LOOPED DOMAINS REMAIN, THE DISCRETE
SCAFFOLD IS NOT PRESENT.

THE LOOPED DOMAINS APPEAR TO BE ATTACHED TO THE NUCLEAR LAMINA AND PERHAPS
THE NUCLEAR MATRIX.

INTERPHASE CHROMOSOMES HAVE AREAS THAT REMAIN HIGHLY CONDENSED, HETERO

CHROMATIN, AND LESS COMPACTED AREAS, EUCHROMATIN.
The organization of genes on a typical vertebrate chromosome . Proteins that bind to the DNA in regulatory regions
determine whether a gene is transcribed; although often located on the 5 side of a gene, as shown here, regulatory
regions can also be located in introns, in exons, or on the 3 side of a gene. Intron sequences are removed from primary
RNA transcripts to produce messengerRNA(mRNA) molecules.The figure given here for the number of genes per
chromosome is a minimal estimate.