DNA compaction

From ResearchID.org, a nexus for researching Intelligent Design

A typical artistic rendition of DNA compaction --- source

The structure of the DNA within the cell, as explained by most textbooks, is a caricature of its actual compaction and structure. In a eukaryotic cell, the DNA undergoes many levels of twisting, folding, rolling, twirling, and coiling. Given the dense and complex compaction DNA undergoes, only providing a summary in a textbook is understandable.

Here is a brief sketch: DNA forms a double-helix that is wrapped around a histone that is bundled into a nucleosome which makes chains of a nucleosomal array which is held together by linker histones to form chromatin fibers and the chromatin scaffolding that takes its shape with the help of the nuclear matrix which allows chromatin scaffolding loops to become a supercoil that makes up a chromosome which is the genetic material that is in the nucleolus which in turn is in the nucleus which is in a cell.

Let's unpack this system with some of the detail it deserves.

1 DNA
2 Double-helix
3 Histone
4 Nucleosome
5 Nucleosomal array
6 Linker histones
7 Chromatin
8 Chromatin scaffolding
9 Nuclear matrix
10 Chromatin scaffolding loops
11 Supercoil
12 Chromosome
13 Genetic material
14 Nucleolus
15 Nucleus
16 Cell
17 See Also

DNA

Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) --- source

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions specifying the biological development of all cellular forms of life, and most viruses. DNA is a long polymer of nucleotides and encodes the sequence of the amino acid residues in proteins using the genetic code, a triplet code of nucleotides.

DNA is often referred to as the molecule of heredity as it is responsible for the genetic propagation of most inherited traits. Each strand of DNA is a chain of chemical "building blocks", called nucleotides, of which there are four types: adenine (abbreviated A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T).

DNA compaction

From ResearchID.org, a nexus for researching Intelligent Design

Contents

See Also