Science.: co-auth.: M.C. Gambetta

Science. 2021 May 28;372(6545):984-989. doi: 10.1126/science.abe2218.

3D genomics across the tree of life reveals condensin II as a determinant of architecture type

Claire Hoencamp # 1Olga Dudchenko # 2 3 4Ahmed M O Elbatsh # 1Sumitabha Brahmachari # 4Jonne A Raaijmakers # 5Tom van Schaik # 6Ángela Sedeño Cacciatore # 1Vinícius G Contessoto # 4 7Roy G H P van Heesbeen # 5Bram van den Broek 8Aditya N Mhaskar 1Hans Teunissen 6Brian Glenn St Hilaire 2 3David Weisz 2 3Arina D Omer 2Melanie Pham 2Zane Colaric 2Zhenzhen Yang 9Suhas S P Rao 2 3 10Namita Mitra 2 3Christopher Lui 2Weijie Yao 2Ruqayya Khan 2 3Leonid L Moroz 11Andrea Kohn 11Judy St Leger 12Alexandria Mena 13Karen Holcroft 14Maria Cristina Gambetta 15Fabian Lim 16Emma Farley 16Nils Stein 17 18 19Alexander Haddad 2Daniel Chauss 20Ayse Sena Mutlu 3Meng C Wang 3 21 22Neil D Young 23Evin Hildebrandt 24Hans H Cheng 24Christopher J Knight 25Theresa L U Burnham 26 27Kevin A Hovel 27Andrew J Beel 10Pierre-Jean Mattei 10Roger D Kornberg 10Wesley C Warren 28Gregory Cary 29José Luis Gómez-Skarmeta 30Veronica Hinman 31Kerstin Lindblad-Toh 32 33Federica Di Palma 34Kazuhiro Maeshima 35 36Asha S Multani 37Sen Pathak 37Liesl Nel-Themaat 37Richard R Behringer 37Parwinder Kaur 19René H Medema 5Bas van Steensel 6Elzo de Wit 6José N Onuchic 4 38Michele Di Pierro 4 39Erez Lieberman Aiden 40 3 4 9 19 32Benjamin D Rowland 41Affiliations expand

Abstract

We investigated genome folding across the eukaryotic tree of life. We find two types of three-dimensional (3D) genome architectures at the chromosome scale. Each type appears and disappears repeatedly during eukaryotic evolution. The type of genome architecture that an organism exhibits correlates with the absence of condensin II subunits. Moreover, condensin II depletion converts the architecture of the human genome to a state resembling that seen in organisms such as fungi or mosquitoes. In this state, centromeres cluster together at nucleoli, and heterochromatin domains merge. We propose a physical model in which lengthwise compaction of chromosomes by condensin II during mitosis determines chromosome-scale genome architecture, with effects that are retained during the subsequent interphase. This mechanism likely has been conserved since the last common ancestor of all eukaryotes.