Thuma Jenna, Chung Yu-Chieh, Tu Li-Chun
Department of Biological Chemistry and Pharmacology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States.
Interdisciplinary Biophysics Graduate Program, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States.
Front Mol Biosci. 2023 Mar 31;10:1173545. doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2023.1173545. eCollection 2023.
Nuclear chromosome compaction is non-random and dynamic. The spatial distance among genomic elements instantly modulates transcription. Visualization of the genome organization in the cell nucleus is essential to understand nuclear function. In addition to cell type-dependent organization, high-resolution 3D imaging shows heterogeneous compaction of chromatin organization among the same cell type. Questions remain to be answered if these structural variations were the snapshots of dynamic organization at different time points and if they are functionally different. Live-cell imaging has provided unique insights into dynamic genome organization at short (milliseconds) and long (hours) time scales. The recent development of CRISPR-based imaging opened windows for studying dynamic chromatin organization in single cells in real time. Here we highlight these CRISPR-based imaging techniques and discuss their advances and challenges as a powerful live-cell imaging method that poses high potential to generate paradigm-shifting discoveries and reveal functional implications of dynamic chromatin organization.
核染色体压缩是非随机且动态的。基因组元件之间的空间距离会即时调节转录。可视化细胞核中的基因组组织对于理解核功能至关重要。除了细胞类型依赖性组织外，高分辨率三维成像显示同一细胞类型中染色质组织存在异质性压缩。这些结构变异是否是不同时间点动态组织的快照以及它们在功能上是否不同，仍有待解答。活细胞成像在短（毫秒）和长（小时）时间尺度上为动态基因组组织提供了独特见解。基于CRISPR的成像技术的最新发展为实时研究单细胞中的动态染色质组织打开了窗口。在这里，我们重点介绍这些基于CRISPR的成像技术，并讨论它们作为一种强大的活细胞成像方法的进展和挑战，这种方法具有产生范式转变发现并揭示动态染色质组织功能意义的巨大潜力。
