RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Temporally correlated active forces drive segregation and enhanced dynamics in chromosome polymers JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 2023.04.23.528410 DO 10.1101/2023.04.23.528410 A1 Brahmachari, Sumitabha A1 Markovich, Tomer A1 MacKintosh, Fred C. A1 Onuchic, José N. YR 2024 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2024/06/18/2023.04.23.528410.abstract AB Understanding the mechanisms governing the structure and dynamics of flexible polymers like chromosomes, especially, the signatures of motor-driven active processes is of great interest in genome biology. We study chromosomes as a coarse-grained polymer model where microscopic motor activity is captured via an additive temporally persistent noise. The active steady state is characterized by two parameters: active force, controlling the persistent-noise amplitude, and correlation time, the decay time of active noise. We find that activity drives correlated motion over long distances and a regime of dynamic compaction into a globally collapsed entangled globule. Diminished topological constraints destabilize the entangled globule, and the active segments trapped in the globule move toward the periphery, resulting in an enriched active monomer density near the periphery. We also show that heterogeneous activity leads to the segregation of the highly dynamic species from the less dynamic one, suggesting a role of activity in chromosome compartmental segregation. Adding activity to experimental-data-derived structures, we find active loci may mechanically perturb and switch compartments established via epigenetics-driven passive self-association. The key distinguishing signatures of activity are enhanced apparent diffusivity, exploration of all the dynamic regimes (sub-diffusion, effective diffusion, and super-diffusion) at various lag times, and a broadened distribution of observables like the dynamic exponents.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.