Compaction and segregation of sister chromatids via active loop extrusion

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Abstract

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.

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Anton Goloborodko

Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Maxim V Imakaev

Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
John F Marko

Department of Molecular Biosciences, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Leonid Mirny

Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United States

For correspondence
leonid@mit.edu

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

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This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.