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Euchromatin and Heterochromattin

Euchromatin and heterochromatin are the two main structural units of chromatin. Euchromatin is loosely packaged and transcriptionally active, containing genes that are expressed. Heterochromatin is tightly packaged and transcriptionally repressed. There are two types of heterochromatin - constitutive heterochromatin, which is tightly packaged in all cells and contains repetitive DNA, and facultative heterochromatin, which can change structure and packaging between cells. Constitutive heterochromatin is typically found near centromeres and telomeres.

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140 views4 pages

Euchromatin and Heterochromattin

Euchromatin and heterochromatin are the two main structural units of chromatin. Euchromatin is loosely packaged and transcriptionally active, containing genes that are expressed. Heterochromatin is tightly packaged and transcriptionally repressed. There are two types of heterochromatin - constitutive heterochromatin, which is tightly packaged in all cells and contains repetitive DNA, and facultative heterochromatin, which can change structure and packaging between cells. Constitutive heterochromatin is typically found near centromeres and telomeres.

Uploaded by

Soumyaranjan Pati
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© © All Rights Reserved
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The chromatin in the interphase is generally classified into two parts:

● Euchromatin
● Heterochromatin

Euchromatin

A region in which DNA is accessible and is present in an open confrontation


because of the relaxed state of Nucleosome arrangements is referred to as
Euchromatin.

Euchromatin is associated with the presence of high levels of proteins in the


chromatin. In other words, Euchromatin is made up of histones and protamines.
Histones are a group of DNA binding proteins. They play a vital role in regulating
the process of gene transcription and thus play an important role in the
maintenance of chromosomal organization and cellular function. Histone also
maintains the condensation of the chromatin fiber in the nucleus. Protamines are
a sub-family of the histone proteins and play an important role in regulating the
transition of the chromatin into the Euchromatin.

Euchromatin and Heterochromatin are two structural units that help in


maintaining the condensation of the chromatin. There are also other structural
units called facultative Heterochromatin and constitutive Heterochromatin.

Structure of Euchromatin

Euchromatin majorly has unmethylated first gene exons. They exist in


decondensed form and are present in the distal arms of the Chromosome.
Euchromatin is spread all around the nucleus and is replicated during the whole
S Phase. It is generally known as the transcriptionally active form of chromatin.
Euchromatin has less compact structure and is usually referred to as 11 nm fiber
with the presence of beads on a string. The beads represent nucleosomes and
string refers to DNA.
Functions of Euchromatin

The chromatin which is involved in the active transcription of DNA into mRNA is
Euchromatin. As Euchromatin is more open in order to allow the recruitment of
RNA polymerase complexes and gene regulatory Proteins, transcription can be
initiated.

Heterochromatin

A functionally different genomic compartment which has relatively low gene


density along with a highly compact chromatin structure is referred to as
Heterochromatin.

There are two kinds of Heterochromatin: ‘Constitutive Heterochromatin’ is


virtually present in all stages of an organism's life cycle. ‘Facultative
Heterochromatin’ occurs in one of a pair of homologs. Heterochromatin can
epigenetically administer the expression of nearby genes resulting in varied
phenotypes in genetically identical cells.

Biochemical and genetic approaches show that the RNAi machinery plays an
important role in the formation of Heterochromatin.

Heterochromatin is the opposite of Euchromatin. Euchromatin and


Heterochromatin are structural units. It is associated with the presence of DNA or
histone protein.

Heterochromatin is a part of the chromatin. It is associated with the presence of


histone H3 and Heterochromatin proteins. These Heterochromatin proteins
consist of proteins of the family of HP1, PH1, and HIRA. The Heterochromatin
proteins are associated with the repressive histone marks. These proteins are
enriched in the Heterochromatin regions.
The organization of the genetic material into distinct compartments, or domains,
within the nucleus is called chromatin structure.

The DNA in a Euchromatin region is loosely packaged and is relatively


accessible. In this form, the DNA is in a transcriptionally active state. A key
process that contributes to this accessibility is DNA replication. In this process,
the genetic material in Euchromatin is replicated and distributed in multiple
replication sites, or replication forks, along the length of a Chromosome.

The DNA in Heterochromatin is tightly packaged. These tightly packaged regions


have no or very few replication sites. Therefore, the DNA in Heterochromatin is in
a transcriptionally repressed state. Transcriptional activity is also repressed in
Heterochromatin. This is due in large part to the presence of methyl groups on
the DNA in Heterochromatin. Methylation of the DNA prevents transcriptional
activity. This process is called transcriptional silencing.

Structure of Heterochromatin

The structure of Heterochromatin is tightly packed and condensed. The changes


in Heterochromatin occurs due to the modifications to histones and spreading of
silencing complexes causing the changes in structure of chromatin. Due to its
repressive structure, Heterochromatin does not completely express the genes
within it.

Heterochromatin usually folds into higher order structures and this induces an
increase in negative supercoiling of DNA. The structure of Heterochromatin is
stable and is also dynamic and changes with the cell cycle. The formation of
chromatin is promoted due to the DNA elements called barriers which promote
the formation of active chromatin and remove the nucleosomes. This allows the
Heterochromatin to spread.
The structure of Heterochromatin is easily explained by analyzing the
‘Constitutive Heterochromatin’ and ‘Facultative Heterochromatin’. Constitutive
Heterochromatin is the stable form which consists of repeated sequences of DNA
called Satellite DNA. The structural functions are regulated by this form of
Heterochromatin and are found in centromeres and telomeres.

Facultative Heterochromatin is known to change its structure according to the cell


cycle. This consists of repeated DNA sequences termed as ‘LINE Sequences’.
This can be seen to change its structure in the inactivated X-Chromosome of
females. The structure of Heterochromatin can also be determined by the density
gradient data in which the Heterochromatin appears as a regular structure and
Euchromatin has an irregular structure.

Functions of Heterochromatin

The functional aspects of Heterochromatin are determined by the modifications


of chromatin. The Heterochromatin core histones present in yeast are
hypoacetylated which makes the lysine residues to become more positively
charged, allowing an increase in the interaction between the histone and DNA,
making the nucleosome more closed in structure.

Constitutive heterochromatin
All cells of a given species package the same regions of DNA in constitutive heterochromatin, and
thus in all cells, any genes contained within the constitutive heterochromatin will be poorly
expressed. For example, all human chromosomes 1, 9, 16, and the Y-chromosome contain large
regions of constitutive heterochromatin. In most organisms, constitutive heterochromatin occurs
around the chromosome centromere and near telomeres.

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