Breakthrough study provides new insights into growth process

A team led by Liggins Institute Senior Research Fellow Dr Justin O’Sullivan has published research which shows, for the first time, the dynamic changes that occur in the spatial organisation of DNA during cell division in the yeast Schizosaccaharomyces pombe.

Using a technique known as Genome Conformation Capture (GCC), the investigators charted the different conformations and shapes the chromosomes fold into during the cycle of cell division, at the same time measuring the activity of specific genes involved in the cell cycle.

According to Dr O’Sullivan this work represents an early step towards understanding how epigenetic modifications (chemical changes to the structure of a cell’s DNA which do not alter the genetic code) work together to form an environment within which genes are turned on and off.

“This will provide essential knowledge which would eventually allow us to improve human health by optimising the power of environmental factors, such as nutrition, to influence cellular changes that occur during early development and throughout life,” he says.

A media release by the journal publishers described why they believed the paper was so important, saying “This work highlights the importance of regional specialization of nuclear functions, their relation with preferential chromatin contacts, and how such organization may facilitate the robust and coordinated expression of specific gene cohorts at appropriate stages of cell growth and division.”

Nucleic Acids Research is a publication of Oxford University Press and is fully open access. Breakthrough articles at NAR describe studies that solve a long-standing problem in their field, or provide exceptional new insight and understanding into an area of research that will clearly motivate and guide new research opportunities and directions. They represent the top papers that NAR receives for publication, and are selected by the Editors based on nominations by authors and/or reviewers, and on the subsequent recommendation of the reviewers and editorial board members.

The paper “Chromosome conformation maps in fission yeast reveal cell cycle dependent sub nuclear structure” (Ralph Grand, Tatyana Pichugina, Lutz R. Gehlen, M. Beatrix Jones, Peter Tsai, Jane R. Allison, Robert Martienssen, Justin O’Sullivan) is available online at the open access Nucleic Acids Research website.

It has been chosen as a cover article when the print edition is published later in November.

Dr O’Sullivan talked to Kim Hill about this research in an interview on Radio New Zealand’s Saturday Morning programme.