Computational predictions of structures of multichromosomes of budding yeast.

Abstract

Knowledge of the global architecture of the cell nucleus and the spatial organization of genome is critical for understanding gene expression and nuclear function. Single-cell imaging techniques provide a wealth of information on the spatial organization of chromosomes. Computational tools for modelling chromosome structure have broad implications in studying the effect of cell nucleus on higher-order genome organization. Here we describe a multichromosome constrained self-avoiding chromatin model for studying ensembles of genome structural models of budding yeast nucleus. We successfully generated a large number of model genomes of yeast with appropriate chromatin fiber diameter, persistence length, and excluded volume under spatial confinement. By incorporating details of the constraints from single-cell imaging studies, our method can model the budding yeast genome realistically. The model developed here provides a general computational framework for studying the overall architecture of budding yeast genome.