Supercoiling is a fundamental property of DNA and chromatin. It is modulated by polymerase and topoisomerase activities and, through regulated constraint, by DNA/chromatin binding proteins. As a non-covalent and elusive topological modification, supercoiling has proved intractable to research despite being a crucial regulator of nuclear structure and function. Recent studies have improved our understanding of the formation, regulation and organisation of supercoiling domains in vivo, and reinforce the prospect that the propagation of supercoiling can influence local and global chromatin structure. However, to further our understanding the development of new experimental tools and models are required to better dissect the mechanics of this key topological regulator.

中文翻译：

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DNA 和染色质中的超螺旋。

超螺旋是 DNA 和染色质的基本特性。它受聚合酶和拓扑异构酶活性的调节，并通过受调节的约束受 DNA/染色质结合蛋白的调节。作为一种非共价且难以捉摸的拓扑修饰，超螺旋已被证明是难以研究的，尽管它是核结构和功能的关键调节器。最近的研究提高了我们对体内超螺旋结构域的形成、调控和组织的理解，并强化了超螺旋传播可以影响局部和全局染色质结构的前景。然而，为了进一步了解我们需要开发新的实验工具和模型，以更好地剖析这个关键拓扑调节器的机制。