Self-organization of a chromatin fibril into topologically-associated domains

Abstract

A number of recent experimental approaches demonstrated that a three-dimensional organization of the eukaryotic genome play an important role in the regulation of its activity. One of the most important results was a discovery of the genome separation into relatively independent topologically-associated domains (TADs). They restricted the action area of regulatory elements, i.e., they simultaneously were regulatory domains of the genome. In this connection, an understanding of the molecular mechanism of the TAD formation has become a very topical problem. Here, we review and discuss our recent data which demonstrated that the TAD formation was directed by simple physical laws and was based on establishing multiple internucleosomal contacts.