Cohesin adopts a flexible butterfly conformation in vivo and forms spatial and temporal regulated ordered clusters to maintain cohesion and condensation.

Sister chromatid cohesion is established during replication by two independent pathways operating in parallel, one converts chromosomal cohesin into cohesive structures while the other loads cohesin onto nascent DNAs.

Systematic analyses of DNA replication machinery components in human cells reveal a requirement of MCM-dependent de novo loading or mobilization of cohesin at replication forks in establishing sister-chromatid cohesion.

Meiotic recombination and chromosome segregation require the establishment of chromatin boundaries by the acetyltransferase Eco1, which anchors both chromatin loops and cohesion.

Cohesin role in chromosome organisation during anaphase is necessary for the segregation of chromosomes.

Absolute quantification of cohesin, CTCF, NIPBL, WAPL and sororin in HeLa cells implies that some genomic cohesin and CTCF enrichment sites are unoccupied at any one time.

Single-molecule imaging of CTCF and cohesin in live cells suggests that chromatin loops are dynamic structures that frequently form and fall apart.

A structure-based model of the chromosomal cohesin complex, accompanied by molecular-mechanistic simulations, explains cohesin's key role in topologically entrapping DNA, as well as its ability to alternatively extrude DNA loops.

Rigorous biochemical and structural analyses reveal the precise topology of cohesin's association with DNA and suggest a mechanism for how DNA is transported inside the ring.

Mechanisms that tether and release replicated sister chromatids to produce sperm and eggs rely extensively on meiotic cohesin complexes that are endowed with unexpectedly different properties specified by a single interchangeable subunit, the α-kleisin.