title: 4D chromatin dynamics in cycling cells: Theodor Boveri's hypotheses revisited.
abstract: This live cell study of chromatin dynamics in four dimensions (space and time) in cycling human cells provides direct evidence for three hypotheses first proposed by Theodor Boveri in seminal studies of fixed blastomeres from Parascaris equorum embryos: (I) Chromosome territory (CT) arrangements are stably maintained during interphase. (II) Chromosome proximity patterns change profoundly during prometaphase. (III) Similar CT proximity patterns in pairs of daughter nuclei reflect symmetrical chromosomal movements during anaphase and telophase, but differ substantially from the arrangement in mother cell nucleus. Hypothesis I could be confirmed for the majority of interphase cells. A minority, however, showed complex, rotational movements of CT assemblies with large-scale changes of CT proximity patterns, while radial nuclear arrangements were maintained. A new model of chromatin dynamics is proposed. It suggests that long-range DNA-DNA interactions in cell nuclei may depend on a combination of rotational CT movements and locally constrained chromatin movements.
authors.affiliation: Department Biology II (Anthropology and Human Genetics), LMU Biozentrum, Martinsried, Germany.
authors.forename: Hilmar
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Strickfaden
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zunhammer
authors.forename: Silvana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: van Koningsbruggen
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Köhler
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cremer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002453:Cell Cycle; D002460:Cell Line; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism; D002843:Chromatin / Q000378:metabolism*; D045584:Chromosome Positioning; D002877:Chromosomes, Human / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009068:Movement; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D002843:Chromatin