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Genes controlling chromosome structure in Drosophila melanogaster

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Chromosomes Today

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Abstract

The DNA of eukaryotic cells is condensed approximately 10,000-fold into metaphase chromosomes. This extremely tight DNA compaction is brought about with such an exquisite precision that metaphase chromosomes maintain, mitosis after mitosis, not only their relative size but also fine morphological features such as primary and secondary constrictions, differential condensation of euchromatin and heterochromatin, and chromosome banding. The early steps of DNA compaction, resulting in a 40-fold packing of this molecule, are rather well defined. They involve DNA—histone interactions producing the 11 nm nucleosomal fibre which is further coiled into a 30 nm solenoid (reviewed by McGhee and Felsenfeld, 1980). The higher order condensation of the solenoid is less understood. The most widely accepted model is that the solenoid fiber is folded into 60–100 kb loops anchored in a radial fashion to a ‘scaffold’ of nonhistone proteins (Marsden and Laemmli, 1979). This scaffold is thought to contain a loose network of discrete anchoring complexes which, upon histone depletion and fixation, may collapse into a continuous proteinaceous structure (for reviews see Paulson, 1988; Gasser et al., 1989).

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Authors
  1. F. Verni’
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  2. M. P. Somma
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  3. R. Gandhi
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  4. M. L. Goldberg
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  5. M. Gatti
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Genetics, University of San Pablo, Madrid, Spain

    N. Henriques-Gil

  2. The University of Cambridge, UK

    J. S. Parker (Professor of Plant Cytogenetics) (Professor of Plant Cytogenetics)

  3. Department of Genetics, University of Complutense, Madrid, Spain

    M. J. Puertas

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© 1997 The Organizing Committee of the 12th International Chromosome Conference, Madrid, Spain

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Verni’, F., Somma, M.P., Gandhi, R., Goldberg, M.L., Gatti, M. (1997). Genes controlling chromosome structure in Drosophila melanogaster . In: Henriques-Gil, N., Parker, J.S., Puertas, M.J. (eds) Chromosomes Today. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1537-4_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1537-4_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7186-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-1537-4

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