iTHEMS Biology Seminar by Dr. Hiroshi Yokota on October 21, 2021

In the iTHEMS Biology seminar on October 21, I talked about the driving force and the mechanism of the chromosome formation. The chromosome is constructed by chromatin fiber condensed into the rod-like shape. The rod-like shape comes from the consecutive chromatin loops. The driving force of the chromosome formation is one of the controversial issues. Two hypotheses on the driving force are considered: energy gain from ATP hydrolysis and thermal fluctuation energy. In this talk, I discussed the driving force derived from the free energy of the chromatin loop. Moreover, the mechanism associated with each driving force was also discussed by using the dynamical model based on the free energy. The result implies that these mechanisms dynamically switch. This study is collaborated with Masashi Tachikawa in Kyoto University who is also visiting scientist in iTHEMS. As there were various questions and discussions from the audiences, I was so happy. Thank you very much!