Cells compartmentalize their genome into active and inactive parts that contain distinct histone marks and are differently packaged. Recent work has shed new light on the mechanisms that drive this type of chromatin patterning and the properties of the resulting domains. Biophysical concepts such as liquid-liquid phase separation, polymer looping and collapse, molecular crowding and viscoelasticity are increasingly used to describe experimental observations. Accordingly, it is becoming clear that the physicochemical properties of the nuclear interior are relevant for understanding chromatin compartmentalization. Here, I discuss recent insights into the properties of chromatin subcompartments obtained with complementary techniques on different scales, and relate them to models for functional chromatin patterning.

中文翻译：

---

染色质图案的生物物理机制。

细胞将其基因组划分为有活性和无活性的部分，这些部分包含不同的组蛋白标记，并且包装方式不同。最近的工作为驱动这种染色质图案形成的机制以及所得结构域的性质提供了新的思路。诸如液-液相分离，聚合物环化和塌陷，分子拥挤和粘弹性的生物物理概念越来越多地用于描述实验观察。因此，逐渐清楚的是，核内部的物理化学性质与理解染色质区室化有关。在这里，我讨论了使用补充技术在不同规模上获得的染色质子小室的特性的最新见解，并将它们与功能性染色质图案化模型相关联。