A Compendium of Methods to Analyze the Spatial Organization of Plant Chromatin

Abstract

The long linear chromosomes of eukaryotic organisms are tightly packed into the nucleus of the cell. Beyond a first organization into nucleosomes and higher-order chromatin fibers, the positioning of nuclear DNA within the three-dimensional space of the nucleus plays a critical role in genome function and gene expression. Different techniques have been developed to assess nanoscale chromatin organization, nuclear position of genomic regions or specific chromatin features and binding proteins as well as higher-order chromatin organization. Here, I present an overview of imaging and molecular techniques applied to study nuclear architecture in plants, with special attention to the related protocols published in the "Plant Chromatin Dynamics" edition from Methods in Molecular Biology.

Keywords: 3C techniques, Fluorescence immunolabeling; Fluorescence in situ hybridization; Microscopy; Nuclear architecture.