Chromosomes articles from across Nature Portfolio

Szalay et al. discuss cross-kingdom similarities and differences in 3D chromatin folding in relation to gene regulation, including in bacteria, archaea, mammals and plants. This comparison reveals certain factors as ancestral sculptors of the genome, but also that evolution tolerates considerable variety in genome organization.

Using single-cell DNA sequencing we show that most healthy women harbour rare populations of aneuploid epithelial cells with copy number alteration events in their breast tissue that expand and accumulate with age.

Functional characterization of the nucleus- and spindle-associated protein NuSAP4 identifies its essential roles in regulating spindle dynamics in the early divergent protozoan Trypanosoma brucei

Vibrio cholerae has a primary chromosome and a megaplasmid-derived secondary chromosome. Here, the authors show that protein MatP structures the replication termini of both chromosomes into macrodomains, targets them to mid-cell during replication, and delays their segregation, thus supporting that the secondary chromosome behaves as a bona fide chromosome.

Drive mechanisms in B chromosome systems remain unclear. Here, the authors assemble the rye B chromosome pseudomolecule, identify candidate trans-acting, drive-controlling factors of the B chromosomal drive, and show a microtubule-associated protein could derive from a functional A chromosomal ancestor.

In this Tools of the Trade article, Carly Tyer describes the development of Telo-seq, a method to enrich and sequence all telomeres within a sample, and highlights its use in distinguishing between the two telomere maintenance mechanisms used in cancer cells.

In this Journal Club article, Laura Ross discusses several seminal papers that describe the discovery of germline-specific chromosomes and paternal genome elimination, striking examples of non-Mendelian genetics.

Logsdon et al. report the second complete sequence of all centromeres from a single human genome, enabling comparative analyses of the variation in tandemly repeating α-satellite DNA.

ADP-ribosylation regulates the activity of numerous proteins involved in the DNA damage response and repair. A new study shows that telomeric DNA can be ADP-ribosylated by PARP1, and prompt removal of the ADP-ribose by TARG1 is essential to preserve telomere integrity, unveiling DNA–ADP-ribosylation as a novel player in telomere stability.

When transcription by RNA polymerase II is stalled by ultraviolet-induced DNA damage, it recruits repair factors, leading to excision of the damaged site and DNA synthesis to fill the gap. Three new studies show that, for aldehyde-induced DNA crosslinks, repair is activated by the same factors, but without base excision and gap filling.