Chromatin structure changes upon oxidative stress or UV irradiation in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Development of molecular approaches based on chromosome conformation capture (3C) technology such as Hi-C, combined with methods for modeling and interpreting chromatin interaction data, have revolutionized the analysis of chromosome folding. Even if the impact of chromatin structure on gene expression seems likely, little is known about the dynamics of DNA compaction and the factors involved in this process still have to be determined. Using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model, we used Hi-C technology to evaluate how 3D chromatin structure changes during different cellular processes such as adaptation in response to stress or DNA repair. We optimized the protocol from Belton, J.M et al (1) to produce our Hi-C libraries, one from control cells, one from cells after oxidative stress and one from cells after UV irradiation. Preliminary analysis suggests that in response to oxidative stress, chromosomes tend to make more contacts in trans and less contacts in cis compared to normal condition.