The Dynamic Control of Chromatin Structure

One of the most amazing engineering achievements in nature is how over 2 meters of genomic DNA can be compacted and squeezed nearly a million times to fit into our chromosomes. This compaction process has been exploited by the cell to generate specialised structural and functional domains along the chromosome necessary to regulate gene expression. The aim of this investigation is to uncover the key molecular step(s) that regulates the extent of chromosome compaction using a novel in vitro system. This information will have important implications in understanding how the information of a genome is translated to form a complex multicellular organism.