Topologically Associating Domains in Chromosome Architecture and Gene Regulatory Landscapes during Development, Disease, and Evolution

The packaging of genetic material into chromatin and chromosomes has been recognized for more than a century, thanks to microscopy and biochemical approaches. This was followed by the progressive realization that chromatin organization is critical for genome functions such as transcription and DNA replication and repair. The recent discovery that chromosomes are partitioned at the submegabase scale into topologically associating domains (TADs) has implications for our understanding of gene regulation during developmental processes such as X-chromosome inactivation, as well as for evolution and for the search for disease-associated loci. Here we discuss our current knowledge about this recently recognized level of mammalian chromosome organization, with a special emphasis on the potential role of TADs as a structural basis for the function and evolution of mammalian regulatory landscapes.