PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Barth, R.
AU  - Bystricky, K.
AU  - Shaban, H. A.
TI  - Coupling chromatin structure and dynamics by live super-resolution imaging
AID  - 10.1101/777482
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 777482
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/05/07/777482.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/05/07/777482.full
AB  - Chromatin conformation regulates gene expression and thus constant remodeling of chromatin structure is essential to guarantee proper cell function. To gain insight into the spatio-temporal organization of the genome, we employ high-density photo-activated localization microscopy and deep learning to obtain temporally resolved super-resolution images of chromatin in living cells. In combination with high-resolution dense motion reconstruction, we confirm the existence of elongated ~ 45 to 90 nm wide chromatin ‘blobs’. A computational chromatin model suggests that these blobs are dynamically associating chromatin fragments in close physical and genomic proximity and adopt TAD-like interactions in the time-average limit. Experimentally, we found that chromatin exhibits a spatio-temporal correlation over ~ 4 μm in space and tens of seconds in time, while chromatin dynamics are correlated over ~ 6 μm and last 40 s. Notably, chromatin structure and dynamics are closely related, which may constitute a mechanism to grant access to regions with high local chromatin concentration.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.