BIOPHYSICAL THEORY AND MODELING |
Measuring limits of telomere movement on nuclear envelope
Angelo Rosa 1*, John H. Maddocks 2, Frank R. Neumann 3, Susan M. Gasser 4 and Andrzej Stasiak 5
1 Max-Planck Institut Physik Komplexer Systeme
2 Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
3 The Rockfeller University
4 Fiedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research
5 University of Lausanne
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: rosa{at}mpipks-dresden.mpg.de.
Submitted on November 17, 2005
Revised on November 22, 2005
Accepted on 23 November 2005
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Abstract |
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The dynamic behaviour of the decondensed chromatin can be monitored by real-time fluorescence confocal microscopy. It can be observed that different chromosomal sites enjoy different degrees of freedom during a certain period, exploring larger or smaller portions of nuclear volume. Here we measure the accessible surface for two chromosomal sites (yeast telomeres Tel3R and Tel6R), that both exhibit strong preferential association with the nuclear membrane in galactose-containing media, but differ significantly in gene activity. Telomere Tel6R, which harbors an inducible gene with high levels of transcription, explores a much larger surface than the telomere Tel3R, which is adjacent to inactive chromatin. Thus our results distinguish two perinuclear movements characteristic of different transcriptional state, allowing for a better understanding of the correlation between activity of genes and chromatin dynamics.
Key Words:
chromatin dynamics, confined diffusion, fluorescence confocal microscopy, telomeres
