Pulling on chromatin: mechanical micro-manipulation of chromatin in live cells
Event details
| Date | 22.03.2021 |
| Hour | 10:00 |
| Speaker | Dr. Veer Keizer - Antoine Coulon lab- Institute Curie Paris |
| Location | Online |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Over the past decades, our understanding of the physical organization of the genome has improved tremendously. However, methods to actively probe the relationship between the mechanical properties of chromatin, its organization and function in live cells are still lacking. To address this gap, we have developed a novel tool to directly manipulate chromatin in live cells using magnetic forces. By targeting iron-containing nanoparticles to a specific genomic locus and applying a controlled magnetic field, we were able to physically move chromatin through nuclear space for the first time. We determined the spatial, temporal and force scales at which chromatin reacts to mechanical perturbations and observed partially reversible and multi-component viscoelastic properties of chromatin at the time scale of minutes. Moreover, we were able to assess the interaction with the surrounding chromatin landscape. We are currently building a mechanistic model that captures our findings. This novel tool opens new avenues to investigate the physical properties of the genome at various scales and relate this to key genome functions including transcription, DNA damage/repair, replication, chromosome segregation and genome integrity.
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free
Contact
- Dr. Almut Eisele - [email protected]