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Updated: Feb 8, 2026

Live Cell Imaging of Chromosome Segregation During Mitosis
Published on: March 14, 2018
Modeling the functions of condensin in chromosome shaping and segregation
Yuji Sakai1,2,3, Atsushi Mochizuki1,2,4,5, Kazuhisa Kinoshita6
1iTHES Research Group, RIKEN, Wako, Japan.
Abstract:
The mechanistic details underlying the assembly of rod-shaped chromosomes during mitosis and how they segregate from each other to act as individually mobile units remain largely unknown. Here, we construct a coarse-grained physical model of chromosomal DNA and condensins, a class of large protein complexes that plays key roles in these processes. We assume that condensins have two molecular activities: consecutive loop formation in DNA and inter-condensin attractions. Our simulation demonstrates that both of these activities and their balancing acts are essential for the efficient shaping and segregation of mitotic chromosomes. Our results also demonstrate that the shaping and segregation processes are strongly correlated, implying their mechanistic coupling during mitotic chromosome assembly. Our results highlight the functional importance of inter-condensin attractions in chromosome shaping and segregation.
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