SRA

The non-random three-dimensional organization of genomes is critical for many cellular processes. Recently, analyses of genome-wide chromatin packing in the model dicot plant Arabidopsis thaliana have been reported. At a kilobase scale, the A. thaliana chromatin interaction network is highly correlated with a range of genomic and epigenomic features. Surprisingly, Topologically Associated Domains (TADs), which appear to be a prevalent structural feature of genome packing in many animal species, are not prominent in the A. thaliana genome. A potential explanation for the lack of animal-like TADs in A. thaliana is the absence of canonical insulators, but it might also be an idiosyncrasy of the rather small A. thaliana genome. It is known that chromosome length determines the overall arrangement of chromosomes in the nucleus. We therefore have interrogated the genome of another model plant, rice, with a three-fold larger genome, using a genome-wide chromatin conformation capture approach, Hi-C.