Reconstitution of mitotic chromosomes with purified factors

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26440012
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Molecular biology
• Research Institution: Institute of Physical and Chemical Research
• Principal Investigator: Shintomi Keishi 国立研究開発法人理化学研究所, 平野染色体ダイナミクス研究室, 研究員 (60462694)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 染色体 / ヒストン / ヌクレオソーム / コンデンシン / 再構成 / カエル卵無細胞系

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The nucleosome is the fundamental structural units of eukaryotic chromatin. Immediately before cell division, duplicated nucleosome fibers are organized into a pair of rod-shaped structures within a mitotic chromosome. However, it remains unclear whether nucleosome assembly is indeed an essential prerequisite for mitotic chromosome assembly. To settle this naive question, I have established chromosome reconstitution system with a minimum set of purified proteins and the cell-free chromosome assembly assay made from frog eggs. A substantial set of our results convincingly indicates that, although formation of chromosome axes does not rely on nucleosomes, functional interaction between nucleosomes and the multi-protein complexes termed condensins is required for assembly of fully compact chromosomes.

Free Research Field

細胞生物学