Chromosome folds follow a hidden mathematical law that stays exactly the same in both fruit flies and humans.
DNA is over two meters long but must be folded into a space smaller than a single cell. No one knew if this folding followed a specific blueprint across different species. Research across four phyla reveals a supra-compartment that scales geometrically based on the length of the chromosome. This means the architecture of life is governed by a universal mathematical constant that has been conserved for billions of years. This discovery gives us a new way to predict how genetic mutations will actually change the physical shape of DNA.
A scaling law of periodic radial geometry organises eukaryotic chromosomes
research_square · rs-9598493
Abstract Chromatin alternates between active (A) and inactive (B) compartments along every eukaryotic chromosome, but whether this alternation itself carries a higher-order spatial organisation has not been examined. Here we identify a conserved periodic supra-compartment fold, with a wavelength approximately four times the mean A/B compartment domain-pair period (so that one supra-compartment cycle spans roughly four A/B pairs along the chromosome), by applying a continuous wavelet transform to