Using powerful leading-edge technology, researchers reveal for the first time that the true 3D structures of chromosomes are far removed from the blurry, slightly distorted X-shape many of us are familiar with. They are, in fact, complex and rather beautiful.
In a paper published online this week in Nature, researchers from The Babraham Institute and the University of Cambridge in the UK, and the Weizmann Institute in Israel, describe how, with the help of powerful computers and the latest DNA sequencers, they produced 3D visualizations of chromosomes by generating thousands of molecular measurements of them in single cells.
Funding for the new technology came from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Wellcome Trust.
The new images show that for most of the time, chromosome structures have a rich and beautiful complexity, and they also reveal how the DNA inside them folds up.
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