Exploiting native forces to capture chromosome conformation in mammalian cell nuclei

Mammalian interphase chromosomes fold into a multitude of loops to fit the confines of cell nuclei, and looping is tightly linked to regulated function. Chromosome conformation capture (3C) technology has significantly advanced our understanding of this structure-to-function relationship. However, all 3C-based methods rely on chemical cross-linking to stabilize spatial interactions. This step remains a “black box” as regards the biases it may introduce, and some discrepancies between microscopy and 3C studies have now been reported. To address these concerns, we developed “i3C”