Short Report 3739 The actin family member Arp6 and the histone variant H2A.Z are required for spatial positioning of chromatin in chicken cell nuclei Eri Ohfuchi Maruyama1,*, Tetsuya Hori2,*, Hideyuki Tanabe3,`, Hiroshi Kitamura1,*, Ryo Matsuda1, Shigenobu Tone4, Pavel Hozak5, Felix A. Habermann6, Johann von Hase7, Christoph Cremer7, Tatsuo Fukagawa2 and Masahiko Harata1,` 1Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tohoku University, Tsutsumidori-Amamiyamachi 1-1, Aoba-ku, Sendai 981-8555, Japan 2Department of Molecular Genetics, National Institute of Genetics and The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Shizuoka 411-8540, Japan 3Department of Evolutionary Studies of Biosystems, School of Advanced Sciences, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (Sokendai), Kanagawa 240-0193, Japan 4Department of Biochemistry, Kawasaki Medical School, Kurashiki 701-0192, Japan 5Department of Biology of the Cell Nucleus, Institute of Molecular Genetics, AS CR, v.v.i., Prague 4 14220, Czech Republic 6Ludwig-Maximilians-University, 80539 Munich, Germany 7Institute of Molecular Biology gGmbH (IMB), Ackermannweg 4, 55128 Mainz, Germany *These authors contributed equally to this work `Authors for correspondence (
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[email protected]) Accepted 3 April 2012 Journal of Cell Science 125, 3739–3744 ß 2012. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd doi: 10.1242/jcs.103903 Summary The spatial organization of chromatin in the nucleus contributes to genome function and is altered during the differentiation of normal and tumorigenic cells. Although nuclear actin-related proteins (Arps) have roles in the local alteration of chromatin structure, it is unclear whether they are involved in the spatial positioning of chromatin. In the interphase nucleus of vertebrate cells, gene-dense and gene-poor chromosome territories (CTs) are located in the center and periphery, respectively.