Arabidopsis thaliana TADs

Eukaryote genomes in interphase nuclei are organized in a non-random, hierarchical fashion that correlates to gene expression and other biological activities in the nucleus. One key structural element in the three-dimensional (3D) chromatin organization is the Topologically Associating Domain (TAD), which facilitates the creation of distinct chromatin compartments and specific chromatin interactions, including those between enhancers and their target genes. While TADs are prevalent in many plant species, they have been curiously sparse in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. However, in our recent research, we discovered that the Arabidopsis pds5 mutant plant formed prominent TAD structures.