PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Anton Goloborodko AU - Maksim V. Imakaev AU - John F. Marko AU - Leonid Mirny TI - Compaction and segregation of sister chromatids via active loop extrusion AID - 10.1101/038281 DP - 2016 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 038281 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/01/30/038281.1.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/01/30/038281.1.full AB - The mechanism by which chromatids and chromosomes are segregated during mitosis and meiosis is a major puzzle of biology and biophysics. Using polymer simulations of chromosome dynamics, we show that a single mechanism of loop extrusion by condensins can robustly compact, segregate and disentangle chromosomes, arriving at individualized chromatids with morphology observed in vivo. Our model resolves the paradox of topological simplification concomitant with chromosome “condensation”, and explains how enzymes a few nanometers in size are able to control chromosome geometry and topology at micron length scales. We suggest that loop extrusion is a universal mechanism of genome folding that mediates functional interactions during interphase and compacts chromosomes during mitosis.