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Compacting DNA During the Interphase: Condensin Maintains rDNA Integrity

Chi Kwan Tsang, Yuehua Wei and X.F. Steven Zheng

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During mitosis, condensin is responsible for folding chromatin fibers into highly compact chromosomes, ensuring the faithful segregation of replicated chromosomes into daughter cells after each cell division. Our laboratory has unexpectedly found that condensin is capable of compacting DNA during the interphase: upon nutrient starvation, condensin is loaded to the rDNA array, leading to DNA condensation in this region. This subchromosomal DNA condensation appears to protect the integrity of the rDNA array. These observations provide the first microscopic evidence of DNA compaction by condensin outside mitosis. In addition, they show that condensin is also highly regulated during the interphase.

Authors

Chi Kwan Tsang

Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ

Yuehua Wei

Robert Wood Johnson Medical School; Piscataway, NJ

X.F. Steven Zheng

Robert Wood Johnson Medical School; Piscataway, NJ

This is an open-access article

 Download PDF

If the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.