Researchers combined sophisticated chemical methods with advanced computing capabilities, to study how DNA is packaged into chromosomes when cells divide.
Chemical trap
Their research focused on the structure of a set of large proteins that play a key role in the process."Until now, the complexities of how chromosomes are formed has been something of a mystery."Professor Bill EarnshawSchool of Biological Sciences
This protein complex - known as condensin - interacts with DNA, helping it to be shaped into chromosomes that can be segregated when cells divide.
Their approach involves application of a chemical trap to capture and map of parts of proteins that are close to one another.
This enables researchers to develop a frame-by-frame account of their movement and create a computer model of their structure.
Complex models
Attempts to decipher the structure of these proteins using existing methods had failed, because of the proteins’ size and flexibility.The latest method, which researchers at the University of Edinburgh helped to create, has been more than a decade in development.
Known as Cross Linking Mass Spectrometry (CLMS), it helps identify exactly where molecules touch one another, enabling scientists to model complex biological molecules.
The study, published in the Royal Society journal Open Biology, was carried out in collaboration with the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution in the US and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Australia.
It was funded by the Wellcome Trust.
Understanding the structure of proteins involved [in forming chromosomes], and how they interact, will enable us to modify and analyse their component parts in order to finally figure out how they really work.Professor William EarnshawSchool of Biological Sciences