New 'computational microscope' simulates DNA packaging at more than ten times previous scale
The DNA in our cells wraps around proteins called histones to form nucleosomes, which organize into chromatin. This organization helps pack genetic material into the nucleus and influences how easily genes can be read and DNA damage repaired. Understanding how chromatin changes requires studying molecular movements and interactions that are difficult to capture experimentally.
An international research team, led by IRB Barcelona, the University of Cambridge, UT Southwestern Medical Center, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, has developed OpenCGChromatin, a computational microscope tool that simulates DNA packaging at more than ten times the previous scale. The tool allows researchers to explore how chromatin folds, how its components interact, and which forces hold its structures together.
By connecting interactions between individual molecules with the behavior of larger stretches of chromatin, OpenCGChromatin can study systems more than 10 times larger than those accessible to previous models with comparable resolution. This breakthrough in chromatin modeling has the potential to reveal new insights into how small molecular changes can alter DNA packaging, opening up a completely new range of questions that can now be addressed computationally.
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