Quantifying cell-cycle-dependent chromatin dynamics during interphase by live 3D tracking

The study of cell cycle progression and regulation is important to our unde standing of fundamental biophysics, aging, and disease mechanisms. Local chromatin movements are generally considered to be constrained and rel tively consistent during all interphase stages, although recent advances in our understanding of genome organization challenge this claim. Here, we use high spatiotemporal resolution, 4D (x, y, z and time) localization microscopy by point-spread-function (PSF) engineering and deep learning based image analysis, for live imaging of mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF 3T3) and MEF 3T3 double Lamin A Knockout (LmnaKO) cell lines, to characterize telomere diffusion during the interphase. We detected varying constraint levels imposed on chromatin, which are prominently decreased during G0/G1. Our 4D measurements of telomere diffusion offer an effective method to investigate chromatin dyn dependent motion constraints, which may be caused by various cellular processes.

Automated summary

The study of cell cycle progression and regulation is important for our understanding of fundamental biophysics, aging, and disease mechanisms. The researchers used high spatiotemporal resolution microscopy to investigate chromatin dynamics in mouse embryonic fibroblast cells and found varying levels of constraint on chromatin during different stages of the cell cycle.