Chromatin conformation regulates gene expression and thus, constant remodeling of chromatin structure is essential to guarantee proper cell function. To gain insight into the spatiotemporal organization of the genome, we use high-density photoactivated localization microscopy and deep learning to obtain temporally resolved super-resolution images of chromatin in living cells. In combination with high-resolution dense motion reconstruction, we find elongated ~45- to 90-nm-wide chromatin “blobs.” A computational chromatin model suggests that these blobs are dynamically associating chromatin fragments in close physical and genomic proximity and adopt topologically associated domain–like interactions in the time-average limit. Experimentally, we found that chromatin exhibits a spatiotemporal correlation over ~4 μm in space and tens of seconds in time, while chromatin dynamics are correlated over ~6 μm and last 40 s. Notably, chromatin structure and dynamics are closely related, which may constitute a mechanism to grant access to regions with high local chromatin concentration.

染色质构象调节基因表达，因此，染色质结构的不断重塑对于保证正常的细胞功能至关重要。为了深入了解基因组的时空组织，我们使用高密度光激活定位显微镜和深度学习来获得活细胞中染色质的时间分辨超分辨率图像。结合高分辨率密集运动重建，我们发现了细长的约 45 到 90 nm 宽的染色质“斑点”。计算染色质模型表明，这些斑点在物理和基因组接近的情况下动态关联染色质片段，并在时间平均限制内采用拓扑相关的域样相互作用。实验上，我们发现染色质在空间中表现出约 4 μm 和数十秒时间的时空相关性，而染色质动力学在约 6 μm 和持续 40 秒内相关。值得注意的是，染色质结构和动力学密切相关，这可能构成一种机制，可以访问具有高局部染色质浓度的区域。