Nuclear organization: Uniting replication foci, chromatin domains and chromosome structure

Abstract

In higher eukaryotes, ‘replication factories’ coordinate DNA synthesis within local clusters of chromatin domains. Recent experiments^(1,2) have confirmed the complexity of these clusters and established that the organization of sites labelled during S phase persists throughout the cell cycle. This implies that domain clusters are critical elements of an hierarchy that is fundamental to both nuclear and chromosome structure.