A chromomere, also known as an idiomere, is one of the serially aligned beads or granules of a

eukaryotic Eukaryotes () are organisms whose Cell (biology), cells have a cell nucleus, nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, and many unicellular organisms, are Eukaryotes. They belong to the group of organisms Eukaryota or Eukarya, which is one of the ...

chromosome A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells the most important of these proteins are ...

, resulting from local coiling of a continuous DNA thread. Chromeres are regions of chromatin that have been compacted through localized contraction. In areas of

chromatin Chromatin is a complex of DNA and protein found in eukaryotic cells. The primary function is to package long DNA molecules into more compact, denser structures. This prevents the strands from becoming tangled and also plays important roles in r ...

with the absence of transcription, condensing of DNA and protein complexes will result in the formation of chromomeres. It is visible on a chromosome during the

prophase Prophase () is the first stage of cell division in both mitosis and meiosis. Beginning after interphase, DNA has already been replicated when the cell enters prophase. The main occurrences in prophase are the condensation of the chromatin ret ...

meiosis Meiosis (; , since it is a reductional division) is a special type of cell division of germ cells in sexually-reproducing organisms that produces the gametes, such as sperm or egg cells. It involves two rounds of division that ultimately r ...

and mitosis. Giant banded ( Polytene) chromosomes resulting from the replication of the chromosomes and the synapsis of homologs without cell division is a process called endomitosis. These chromosomes consist of more than 1000 copies of the same chromatid that are aligned and produce alternating dark and light bands when stained. The dark bands are the chromomere. It is unknown when chromomeres first appear on the

. Chromomeres can be observed best when chromosomes are highly condensed. The chromomeres are present during leptotene phase of prophase I during meiosis. During zygotene phase of prophase I, the chromomeres of homologs align with each other to form homologous rough pairing (homology searching). These chromomeres helps provide a unique identity for each homologous pairs. They appear as dense granules during leptotene stage There are more than 2000 chromomeres on 20 chromosomes of maize. Drosophila polytene chromosomes 2

Physical properties

Chromomeres are organized in a discontinuous linear pattern along the condensed chromosomes (pachytene chromosomes) during the prophase stage of

. The linear pattern of chromomeres is linked to the arrangement of genes along the chromosome. Chromomeres contain genes and sometimes clusters of genes within their structure. Aggregates of chromomeres are known as chromonemata. Cohesive proteins

SMC3 Structural maintenance of chromosomes protein 3 (SMC3) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SMC3 gene. SMC3 is a subunit of the Cohesin complex which mediates sister chromatid cohesion, homologous recombination and DNA looping. Cohesi ...

and hRAD21(plays a role in

sister chromatid A sister chromatid refers to the identical copies (chromatids) formed by the DNA replication of a chromosome, with both copies joined together by a common centromere. In other words, a sister chromatid may also be said to be 'one-half' of the dup ...

cohesion) are found within chromomeres at high concentrations, and maintain the proper structure of chromomeres. The protein XCAP-D2 is also present at high concentrations within the chromomere, and acts as a

condensin Condensins are large protein complexes that play a central role in chromosome assembly and segregation during mitosis and meiosis (Figure 1). Their subunits were originally identified as major components of mitotic chromosomes assembled in ''Xenop ...

component. High concentrations of

tandem repeat Tandem repeats occur in DNA when a pattern of one or more nucleotides is repeated and the repetitions are directly adjacent to each other. Several protein domains also form tandem repeats within their amino acid primary structure, such as armadil ...

s of the heterochromatin protein HP1β builds up within the chromomere. In regions where loops attach to chromomeres, there is hyper acetylation of

histone In biology, histones are highly basic proteins abundant in lysine and arginine residues that are found in eukaryotic cell nuclei. They act as spools around which DNA winds to create structural units called nucleosomes. Nucleosomes in turn a ...

4. The extra acetylation loosens chromatin from a condensed form, making it more accessible to proteins involved in

transcription Transcription refers to the process of converting sounds (voice, music etc.) into letters or musical notes, or producing a copy of something in another medium, including: Genetics * Transcription (biology), the copying of DNA into RNA, the fir ...

Functions

Chromomeres are known as the structural subunit of a chromosome. The arrangement of chromomere structure can aid in control of gene expression. Maps of chromomeres can be made for use in genetic and evolutionary studies. Chromomeric maps can be used to locate the exact position of genes on a chromosome. Chromomeric maps can be used to analyze chromosome aberrations, and find correlations between the aberrations and their effects on genes near breakpoints.

Lampbrush chromosomes and chromomeres

Chromomeres display different properties and behaviours when associated with lampbrush chromosomes. Although found all across the lampbrush chromosome, they are not organized in a clear pattern along as they are in normal pachytene chromosomes of meiosis. The two sister chromatids of a lampbrush chromosome separate fully, forming lateral loops that extend from chromomeres, and act as transcription complexes. The lateral loops are areas where the chromosomes are transcriptionally active. The loops define where the chromomere will be positioned. The chromomere is an organization of regions of non-transcribed chromatin. These regions of chromatin that have not been transcribed are located at the ends of the loops that were formed by the sister chromatids of a lampbrush chromosome. Each chromomere can have up to several pairs of loops from lampbrush chromosomes originating from it, as well as micro-loops that cannot be detected with a light microscope. Chromomeres of lampbrush chromosomes act as structural units, and are not considered to be genetic units participating in transcription. The arrangement of a chromosome into chromomeric units happens almost simultaneously with the start of transcription. The loop structures extending from chromomeres are maintained by a high level of transcriptional activity and structural proteins of the chromosome. Chromatin within the chromomere are held in position by a variety of histone modifications and epigenetic markers. Methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (MeCP2) is a protein that binds to methylated DNA. MeCP2 has been found to associate most strongly with transcriptionally inactive chromomere domains. MeCP2 binding patterns to chromomere domains are proportional to the density of chromomeric DNA found on a chromosome. The binding of MeCP2 to chromomeric regions represents regions of chromatin that are highly dynamic on the lampbrush chromosome.

References

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External links

"Preparation and analysis of spermatocyte meiotic pachytene bivalents of pigs for gene mapping" - Nature

* ttps://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF00327327 "Chromonema and chromomere" - Springerlink Chromosomes