The tethering of chromatin to the nuclear envelope supports nuclear mechanics

Sarah M. Schreiner, Peter K. Koo, Yao Zhao, Simon G. J. Mochrie () and Megan C. King ()
Additional contact information
Sarah M. Schreiner: Yale School of Medicine
Peter K. Koo: Yale University
Yao Zhao: Yale University
Simon G. J. Mochrie: Yale University
Megan C. King: Yale School of Medicine

Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract The nuclear lamina is thought to be the primary mechanical defence of the nucleus. However, the lamina is integrated within a network of lipids, proteins and chromatin; the interdependence of this network poses a challenge to defining the individual mechanical contributions of these components. Here, we isolate the role of chromatin in nuclear mechanics by using a system lacking lamins. Using novel imaging analyses, we observe that untethering chromatin from the inner nuclear membrane results in highly deformable nuclei in vivo, particularly in response to cytoskeletal forces. Using optical tweezers, we find that isolated nuclei lacking inner nuclear membrane tethers are less stiff than wild-type nuclei and exhibit increased chromatin flow, particularly in frequency ranges that recapitulate the kinetics of cytoskeletal dynamics. We suggest that modulating chromatin flow can define both transient and long-lived changes in nuclear shape that are biologically important and may be altered in disease.

Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms8159 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms8159

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8159

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().