3-D Cells center imaging

3-D Imaging Technique Maps Migration of DNA-carrying Material at the Center of Cells

X-ray technique at Berkeley Lab provides high-res views of the structure and movement of genetic material in cell nuclei

News Release Glenn Roberts Jr. • NOVEMBER 17, 2016

This computer rendering shows the skeletonized structure of heterochromatin (red represents a thin region while white represents a thick region), a tightly packed form of DNA, surrounding another form of DNA-carrying material known as euchromatin (dark blue represents a thin region and yellow represent the thickest) in a mouse’s mature nerve cell. (Credit: Berkeley Lab, UCSF)

Scientists have mapped the reorganization of genetic material that takes place when a stem cell matures into a nerve cell. Detailed 3-D visualizations show an unexpected connectivity in the genetic material in a cell’s nucleus, and provide a new understanding of a cell’s evolving architecture.

These unique 3-D reconstructions of mouse olfactory cells, which govern the sense of smell, were obtained using X-ray imaging tools at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). The results could help us understand how patterning and reorganization of DNA-containing material called chromatin in a cell’s nucleus relate to a cell’s specialized function as specific genes are activated or silenced.

Chromatin is compacted to form chromosomes, which pass along an organism’s genetic fingerprint to newly formed cells during cell division./.../