Molecular features of heterochromatin condensation

Eukaryotic chromosomes are nonuniformly condensed in both interphase and metaphase. This difference is most apparent in mitotic chromosomes in which centromeric heterochromatin is distinguishable from euchromatic arms because of a higher degree of condensation. This difference prevails in interphase and has led to the designation of this type of heterochromatin as “constitutive”. Differences in condensation presumably are a consequence of differential stability of higher order chromatin structure. Since higher order structure is likely to be due to distinctive DNA-protein and protein-protein interactions, our goal is to identify components of such interactions as a first step in understanding the molecular basis for differential chromatin condensation.Analysis of the structure of the mouse major centromeric satellite DNA revealed the presence of stable DNA curvature which could be reversed if certain small ligands which recognize a sequence motif common to this highly repeated DNA were bound to the DNA. In addition, growth of cells in the presence of these ligands prevented complete condensation of centromere regions of metaphase chromosomes (Fig.1).