Describe the organization of bacterial chromosomes
nucleoid
bacterial and archaea chromosomes packed in a region
how are bacterial chromosomes compacted?
relaxed circle
least twisted
highly supercoiled form
most tightly twisted
negative supercoiling
bacteria and archaea, twists DNA in the opposite direction to the helical twist
positive supercoiling
in some archaea, twists the DNA in the same direction as the double helix
topoisomerases
partially unwind supercoiled DNA to receive torsional stresses that could result from “overwinding”
cross section through a nucleosome
cor particle octomer= H2A, H2B, H3 and H4
what does H1 do?
linkes regions with DNA + H1 occur between adjacent nucleosomes
30-nm fiber
solenoid structure
-10-nm fiber coils into a solenoid structure, w/6-8 nucleosomes per turn and histone H1 stabilizing the solenoid
chromosome scaffold
determines chromosome shape
-composed of filamentous nonhistone proteins
metaphase chromatin
chromatin is compacted 250x compared to the 300nm fiber
active transcription
take place in segments of loops distant form MARS, larger loops have more active transcription than small loops
chromatin remodeling
nucleosomes displace to expose promotor and other regulator sequences
epigenetic marks or epigenetic modifications
chemical modifications to histones in nucleosomes
-addition or removal of chemical groups such as methyl or acetyl groups
methyl groups
tighten DNA packaging- decrease transcription
acetyl groups
loosen packaging- increase transcription
when are epigenetic modifications of histones transmitted
cell division or reproduction
metacentric
middle
submetacentric
slightly closer to one end
acrocentric
near one end
telocentric
end
unstable centromere positions
acentric and dicentric