PROPHASE EXAMPLE FULL

Euchromatin has a less compact structure, and is often described as a 11 nm fiber that has the appearance of ‘beads on a string’ where the beads represent nucleosomes and the string represents DNA. Traditionally, interphase chromatin is classified as either euchromatin or heterochromatin, depending on its level of compaction. The combination of DNA and histone proteins that make up the nuclear content is often referred to as chromatin. Histones generally arrange as an octamer in complex with DNA to form the nucleosome.

PROPHASE EXAMPLE FULL

Like the formation of metaphase chromosomes, the compaction required to fit a full set of interphase chromosomes into the nucleus is achieved through a series of DNA folding, wrapping and bending events that are facilitated by histones, which are highly conserved basic nuclear proteins that enable DNA compaction by neutralizing DNA’s negative charge. Compared to mitotic chromosomes, interphase chromosomes are less condensed and occupy the entire nuclear space, making them somewhat difficult to distinguish. Although this heavily condensed mitotic form has become the most common way of depicting chromosomes, their structure is significantly different during the interphase. The number of chromosomes varies from species to species for example, there are 40 chromosomes (20 pairs) in mice, 8 chromosomes (4 pairs) in the common fruit fly and 10 chromosomes (5 pairs) in the Arabidopsis thaliana plant.Ĭhromosomes reach their highest level of condensation during cell division, or mitosis, where they will acquire a discrete 4-armed or 2-armed morphology that represents approximately 10,000-fold compaction.

This is achieved through an elaborate process of DNA condensation that sees DNA packaged into 46 chromosomes (or 23 chromosome pairs) in humans. Together, mitotic chromosomes, visualized in light microscope, are called karyotype.Ī series of processes must therefore take place that enable the cell to package DNA within the confines of the nucleus whilst retaining its ability to transcribe and duplicate the entire DNA sequence and maintain its integrity. During the cell division, chromosome territories transform into highly condensed chromosomes, which then can be clearly distinguished from one another. Lighter stained euchromatin (transcriptionally active) and the patches of darker heterochromatin (transcriptionally silent) are, on the other hand, easy to visualize. Never the less, they do occupy a discrete space inside a nucleus – so called chromosome territory (borders of chromosomes territories are suggested as red dotted lines in the figure A). In the interphase nucleus, chromosomes are difficult to distinguish from each other.

Prophase example