3D nuclear architecture studied in cells during hematopoiesis

Normal hematopoiesis provides a model system to analyze changes in the functional nuclear architecture during cell differentiation as quite well defined differentiation stages can be obtained ranging from hematopoietic stem cells / progenitor cells over precursors (monoblasts / myeloblasts) to terminally differentiated cells (monocytes / granulocytes). Monocytes and granulocytes are both terminally differentiated, however, monocytes can further differentiate into macrophages upon activation.

We use several markers to study the 3D nuclear landscape in these cell types: H3K4me3 (for active chromatin), H3K9me3 (for inactive chromatin), SC35 (for splicing speckles), RNA polymerase II phosphorylated on Ser2 or Ser5 (for ongoing transcription or starting/paused transcription, respectively), Nup153 (for nuclear pores) and nucleoli. We are interested to what extent the general organization of the nucleus as predicted by the chromatin territory - interchromatin compartment (CT-IC) model of nuclear architecture is maintained during hematopoietic differentiation.

Relevant publications:

Kölbl AC, Weigl D, Mulaw M, Thormeyer T, Bohlander SK, Cremer T, Dietzel S (2012) The radial nuclear positioning of genes correlates with features of megabase-sized chromatin domains. Chromosome Res 20: 735-52

Hübner B et al. (in preparation)