Biologists construct a ‘periodic table’ for cell nuclei

Phys.org  May 27, 2021 An international team researchers from many countries investigated genome folding across the eukaryotic tree of life. They found two types of 3D genome architectures at the chromosome scale. Each type appears and disappears repeatedly during eukaryotic evolution. The type of genome architecture that an organism exhibits correlates with the absence of condensin II subunits. Moreover, condensin II depletion converts the architecture of the human genome to a state resembling that seen in organisms such as fungi or mosquitoes. In this state, centromeres cluster together at nucleoli, and heterochromatin domains merge. They propose a physical model in […]

‘Seeing’ and ‘manipulating’ functions of living cells

EurekAlert  July 22, 2020 Researchers in Japan investigated the effect of indentation speed on the cell membrane perforation of living HeLa cells based on highly localized photochemical oxidation with catalytic titanium dioxide functionalized AFM probe. Based on force–distance curves obtained during the indentation process, the probability of cell membrane perforation, penetration force, and cell viability was determined quantitatively. They demonstrated that the intracellular TERS imaging has the potential to visualize distinctly different features in Raman spectra between the nucleus and the cytoplasm of a single living cell and to analyze the dynamic behavior of biomolecules inside a living cell…read more. […]