Your body is truly amazing. Every cell inside of it is capable of organizing massive messes of DNA into chromosomes as a cell prepares to divide. That DNA, when unraveled, can span more than two meters in length, but your body’s cells whip it into tidy bundles. We’ve long known that the body can do this. But how it accomplishes this biological feat is another thing. Now, researchers from Delft University in the Netherlands and EMBL Heidelberg in Germany have succeeded in actually catching the process on video, observing how DNA gets structured in real time. It’s pretty nuts.
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Understanding the basics of DNA architecture, said Stephen Montgomery, a Stanford geneticist, has important implications for understanding many aspects of how our cells function and how genes are expressed in the body. “Stretched out from a cell, DNA is about two meters long, so the process of its compaction and disentanglement is highly influential in gene regulation and maintenance of cellular state and homeostasis,” he said.
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Finding the answer to this long-standing mystery was as simple as just recording the process in action, Cees Dekker, the senior author on the study, told Gizmodo. Improved camera and lab technology finally made such a video possible.
Read full, original post: Unprecedented Video Shows How DNA Is Organized in Real Time
