The chromosome looks very different than we thought it would be.

Most of us have studied chemistry or biology as a subject since our high school years. So we know very well how a chromosome in our body is represented in a diagram or pictorially. Most of us will say that a chromosome is a tall, thin X-shaped entity. It forms when two chromatids come together after DNA replicates, before cell division ends. It is the time when each chromatid separates to create its own chromosome.

Is the chromosome structure different from what we think?

At least that’s what we thought up until now. There seems to be a small mistake with this type of representation of a chromosome, the scientists say, at least as far as the accuracy of the representation is concerned. Physician-scientist Jun-Han Su, formerly of Harvard University, says: “Most of the time (about 90%), chromosomes don’t really exist that way.”

In their study, Su and her colleagues formulated a new method for visualizing the 3D organization of chromatin present in our cells. It provided a very detailed understanding of the chromosomal structure as opposed to the X depiction. Senior researcher Xiaowei Zhuang says, “It is crucial to establish the 3D organization to study the mechanisms at the molecular level that form its basis and also to know how it controls tasks. of genes “.

The researchers visualized the chromosomes in a very detailed way unlike ever before, and they also glimpsed the characteristics of transcription activity. All of this was made possible using a new high resolution 3D imaging system. It consisted of linking numerous clicks of genomic loci along the chains of human DNA. The research team decided to share the search results on the web so that other interested people like them can perform further analysis. It will allow us to study this almost invisible characteristic of ourselves in more detail in the coming years. The results are reported in Cell.