Genome-wide analysis of condensin binding sites in vertebrate genome
The condensin complex is well known to be essential for correct packaging and segregation of chromosomes during mitosis and meiosis in all eukaryotes. To date, the genome wide location and the nature of condensin binding sites has remained elusive in vertebrate systems. A detailed knowledge of condensin binding sites is essential to understand the as-yet enigmatic function of this complex and to define its greater role in chromosome architecture. To address this, we have used next generation sequencing to map condensin I in chicken DT40 cells. Unexpectedly, we found condensin I binds predominately to promoter sequences in mitotic cells. We also found a striking enrichment at both centromeres and telomeres, highlighting the importance of the complex in chromosome segregation. Taken together, the results show condensin I is largely absent from heterochromatic regions. These results reveal for the first time the condensin I binding sites in the vertebrate genome, and demonstrate the importance of the complex in genome segregation and suggest a novel function in gene regulation. Overall design: Condensin associated DNA from chicken DT40 cells were affinity purified using streptavidin and deep sequenced by Illumina Hiseq2000