Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS March Meeting 2016
Volume 61, Number 2
Monday–Friday, March 14–18, 2016; Baltimore, Maryland
Session R39: Physics of Genome Organization: from DNA to Chromatin IFocus
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Sponsoring Units: DBIO DPOLY GSNP Chair: John Marko, Northwestern University Room: 342 |
Thursday, March 17, 2016 8:00AM - 8:36AM |
R39.00001: New insights into chromatin folding and dynamics from multi-scale modeling Invited Speaker: Wilma Olson The dynamic organization of chromatin plays an essential role in the regulation of gene expression and in other fundamental cellular processes. The underlying physical basis of these activities lies in the sequential positioning, chemical composition, and intermolecular interactions of the nucleosomes--the familiar assemblies of roughly 150 DNA base pairs and eight histone proteins--found on chromatin fibers. We have developed a mesoscale model of short nucleosomal arrays and a computational framework that make it possible to incorporate detailed structural features of DNA and histones in simulations of short chromatin constructs with 3-25 evenly spaced nucleosomes. The correspondence between the predicted and observed effects of nucleosome composition, spacing, and numbers on long-range communication between regulatory proteins bound to the ends of designed nucleosome arrays lends credence to the model and to the molecular insights gleaned from the simulated structures. We have extracted effective nucleosome-nucleosome potentials from the mesoscale simulations and introduced the potentials in a larger scale computational treatment of regularly repeating chromatin fibers. Our results reveal a remarkable influence of nucleosome spacing on chromatin flexibility. Small changes in the length of the DNA fragments linking successive nucleosomes introduce marked changes in the local interactions of the nucleosomes and in the spatial configurations of the fiber as a whole. The changes in nucleosome positioning influence the statistical properties of longer chromatin constructs with 100-10,000 nucleosomes. We are investigating the extent to which the `local' interactions of regularly spaced nucleosomes contribute to the corresponding interactions in chains with mixed spacings as a step toward the treatment of fibers with nucleosomes positioned at the sites mapped at base-pair resolution on genomic sequences. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 17, 2016 8:36AM - 8:48AM |
R39.00002: Mitotic chromosome compaction via active loop extrusion. Anton Goloborodko, Maxim Imakaev, John Marko, Leonid Mirny During cell division, two copies of each chromosome are segregated from each other and compacted more than hundred-fold into the canonical X-shaped structures. According to earlier microscopic observations and the recent Hi-C study, chromosomes are compacted into arrays of consecutive loops of \textasciitilde 100 kilobases. Mechanisms that lead to formation of such loop arrays are largely unknown.~ Here we propose that, during cell division, chromosomes can be compacted by enzymes that extrude loops on chromatin fibers. First, we use computer simulations and analytical modeling to show that a system of loop-extruding enzymes on a chromatin fiber self-organizes into an array of consecutive dynamic loops. Second, we model the process of loop extrusion in 3D and show that, coupled with the topo II strand-passing activity, it leads to robust compaction and segregation of sister chromatids. This mechanism of chromosomal condensation and segregation does not require additional proteins or specific DNA markup and is robust against variations in the number and properties of such loop extruding enzymes. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 17, 2016 8:48AM - 9:00AM |
R39.00003: Multiscale modeling of three-dimensional genome Bin Zhang, Peter Wolynes The genome, the blueprint of life, contains nearly all the information needed to build and maintain an entire organism. A comprehensive understanding of the genome is of paramount interest to human health and will advance progress in many areas, including life sciences, medicine, and biotechnology. The overarching goal of my research is to understand the structure-dynamics-function relationships of the human genome. In this talk, I will be presenting our efforts in moving towards that goal, with a particular emphasis on studying the three-dimensional organization, the structure of the genome with multi-scale approaches. Specifically, I will discuss the reconstruction of genome structures at both interphase and metaphase by making use of data from chromosome conformation capture experiments. Computationally modeling of chromatin fiber at atomistic level from first principles will also be presented as our effort for studying the genome structure from bottom up. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 17, 2016 9:00AM - 9:12AM |
R39.00004: The universality of nucleosome organization: from yeast to human Razvan Chereji The basic units of DNA packaging are called nucleosomes. Their locations on the chromosomes play an essential role in gene regulation. We study nucleosome positioning in yeast, fly, mouse, and human, and build biophysical models in order to explain the genome-wide nucleosome organization. We show that DNA sequence alone is not able to generate the phased arrays of nucleosomes observed in vivo near the transcription start sites. We discuss simple models which can account for the formation of nucleosome depleted regions and nucleosome phasing at the gene promoters. We show that the same principles apply to different organisms. References: [1] RV Chereji, D Tolkunov, G Locke, AV Morozov - Phys. Rev. E 83, 050903 (2011) [2] RV Chereji, AV Morozov - J. Stat. Phys. 144, 379 (2011) [3] RV Chereji, AV Morozov - Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 111, 5236 (2014) [4] RV Chereji, T-W Kan, et al. - Nucleic Acids Res. (2015) doi: 10.1093/nar/gkv978 [5] RV Chereji, AV Morozov - Brief. Funct. Genomics 14, 50 (2015) [6] HA Cole, J Ocampo, JR Iben, RV Chereji, DJ Clark - Nucleic Acids Res. 42, 12512 (2014) [7] D Ganguli, RV Chereji, J Iben, HA Cole, DJ Clark - Genome Res. 24, 1637 (2014) [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 17, 2016 9:12AM - 9:24AM |
R39.00005: Elucidate Chromatin Folding at the Mesoscale Xiangyun Qiu Knowledge of the three-dimensional structure of chromatin, an active participant of all gene-directed processes, is required to decode its (epi)genetics-structure-function relationships. Albeit often simplified as ``beads-on-a-string'', chromatin possesses daunting complexity in its intricate intra- and inter-nucleosome interactions, as well as the myriad types of molecules acting on it. On the other hand, the folding of chromatin from an extended chain of nucleosomes is highly constrained, e.g., by rather bulky nucleosomes and semi-rigid linker dsDNAs. Further given the well-defined nucleosome and dsDNA structures at the nanometer scale, this creates an opportunity for low-resolution structural methods such as small angle scattering to obtain mesoscale structures of chromatin, which can be further refined computationally to yield atomistic structures of chromatin. Here we present results from our recent studies of recombinant nucleosome arrays with solution small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) and ensemble structure modeling. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 17, 2016 9:24AM - 9:36AM |
R39.00006: Formation of chromosomal domains in interphase by loop extrusion Geoffrey Fudenberg While genomes are often considered as one-dimensional sequences, interphase chromosomes are organized in three dimensions with an essential role for regulating gene expression. Recent studies have shown that Topologically Associating Domains (TADs) are fundamental structural and functional building blocks of human interphase chromosomes. Despite observations that architectural proteins, including CTCF, demarcate and maintain the borders of TADs, the mechanisms underlying TAD formation remain unknown. Here we propose that loop extrusion underlies the formation TADs. In this process, cis-acting loop-extruding factors, likely cohesins, form progressively larger loops, but stall at TAD boundaries due to interactions with boundary proteins, including CTCF. This process dynamically forms loops of various sizes within but not between TADs. Using polymer simulations, we find that loop extrusion can produce TADs as determined by our analyses of the highest-resolution experimental data. Moreover, we find that loop extrusion can explain many diverse experimental observations, including: the preferential orientation of CTCF motifs and enrichments of architectural proteins at TAD boundaries; TAD boundary deletion experiments; and experiments with knockdown or depletion of CTCF, cohesin, and cohesin-loading factors. Together, the emerging picture from our work is that TADs are formed by rapidly associating, growing, and dissociating loops, presenting a clear framework for understanding interphase chromosomal organization. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 17, 2016 9:36AM - 10:12AM |
R39.00007: TBA Invited Speaker: Xiaowei Zhuang |
Thursday, March 17, 2016 10:12AM - 10:24AM |
R39.00008: Predictive Computational Modeling of Chromatin Folding Miichele Di Pierro, Bin Zhang, Peter J. Wolynes, Jose N. Onuchic In vivo, the human genome folds into well-determined and conserved three-dimensional structures. The mechanism driving the folding process remains unknown. We report a theoretical model (MiChroM) for chromatin derived by using the maximum entropy principle. The proposed model allows Molecular Dynamics simulations of the genome using as input the classification of loci into chromatin types and the presence of binding sites of loop forming protein CTCF. The model was trained to reproduce the Hi-C map of chromosome 10 of human lymphoblastoid cells. With no additional tuning the model was able to predict accurately the Hi-C maps of chromosomes 1-22 for the same cell line. Simulations show unknotted chromosomes, phase separation of chromatin types and a preference of chromatin of type A to sit at the periphery of the chromosomes. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 17, 2016 10:24AM - 10:36AM |
R39.00009: Robustness of nucleosome patterns in the presence of DNA sequence-specific free energy landscapes and active remodeling Johannes Nuebler, Benedikt Obermayer, Wolfram Möbius, Michael Wolff, Ulrich Gerland Proper positioning of nucleosomes in eukaryotic cells is important for transcription regulation. When averaged over many genes, nucleosome positions in coding regions follow a simple oscillatory pattern, which is described to a surprising degree of accuracy by a simple one-dimensional gas model for particles interacting via a soft-core repulsion. The quantitative agreement is surprising given that nucleosome positions are known to be determined by a complex interplay of mechanisms including DNA sequence-specific nucleosome stability and active repositioning of nucleosomes by remodeling enzymes. We rationalize the observed robustness of the simple oscillatory pattern by showing that the main effect of several known nucleosome positioning mechanisms is a renormalization of the particle interaction. For example, “disorder” from sequence-specific affinities leads to an apparent softening, while active remodeling can result in apparent softening for directional sliding or apparent stiffening for clamping mechanisms. We suggest that such parameter renormalization can explain the apparent difference of nucleosome properties in two yeast species, S. cerevisiae and S. pombe. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 17, 2016 10:36AM - 10:48AM |
R39.00010: The role of Nucleosome Positions on Chromatin Structure: A multi-scale approach Joshua Lequieu, Andres Cordoba, Juan J. de Pablo Nucleosomes compose the basic unit of chromatin, and their locations are central to the regulation and compaction of eukaryotic genomes. In this work, we examine the coupling between different length scales within chromatin by examining the influence of nucleosome positions on three-dimensional chromatin structure. First, using a detailed molecular model of DNA and proteins, we predict the one-dimensional positioning of nucleosomes and the repositioning mechanisms of nucleosomal DNA. We demonstrate that this mechanism is strongly dependent on DNA sequence and that DNA slides around the histone proteins by either a screw-like or loop-like rearrangement. Next, we couple this detailed model to a coarsened model of chromatin and examine the impact of DNA sequence on chromatin's three-dimensional structure. We show that both the locations of nucleosomes and the mechanisms by which they move have a significant impact on higher-order chromatin structure and that variations in DNA sequence lead to "open" or "closed" regions of chromatin. This approach represents an efficient tool towards understanding the higher order structure of chromatin and how various aspects of chromatin structure are coupled together. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 17, 2016 10:48AM - 11:00AM |
R39.00011: Chromatin extrusion explains key features of loop and domain formation in wild-type and engineered genomes Adrian Sanborn, Suhas Rao, Su-Chen Huang, Neva Durand, Miriam Huntley, Andrew Jewett, Ivan Bochkov, Dharmaraj Chinnappan, Ashok Cutkosky, Jian Li, Kristopher Geeting, Doug McKenna, Elena Stamenova, Andreas Gnirke, Alexandre Melnikov, Eric Lander, Erez Aiden Our recent kilobase-resolution genome-wide maps of DNA self-contacts demonstrated that mammalian genomes are organized into domains and loops demarcated by the DNA-binding protein CTCF. Here, we combine these maps with new Hi-C, microscopy, and genome-editing experiments to study the physical structure of chromatin fibers, domains, and loops. We find that domains are inconsistent with equilibrium and fractal models. Instead, we use physical simulations to study two models of genome folding. In one, intermonomer attraction during condensation leads to formation of an anisotropic ``tension globule.'' In the other, CTCF and cohesin act together to extrude unknotted loops. Both models are consistent with the observed domains and loops. However, the extrusion model explains a far wider array of observations, such as why the CTCF-binding motifs at pairs of loop anchors lie in the convergent orientation. Finally, we perform 13 genome-editing experiments examining the effect of altering CTCF-binding sites on chromatin folding. The extrusion model predicts \textit{in silico} the experimental maps using only CTCF-binding sites. Thus, we show that it is possible to disrupt, restore, and move loops and domains using targeted mutations as small as a single base pair. [Preview Abstract] |
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