In: Biology
although human DNA has a total length of 2 m, it is packaged into a nucleus that is 5 μm in diameter. Explain how this is possible.
As DNA is elongated stucture larger in size than nucleus and cell it has to be packed tightly into a compact structure so as to fit into the cell. The DNA is wrapped around scaffold proteins to form chromatin which is 30 nm fibre. (Remember 1micrometer= 1000 nanometer) Chromatin again folded to form chromosome. Thus DNA can now fit in cell ( compare thread are wrapped to form a ball, thread is very long)
In detail, DNA are coiled around histone protein as beads on a string, ( 11 nm) this struxture is called nucleosome. Nucleosome contain 8 histone wrapled by DNA, called histone octamer, serves as the basic unit for organising higher level of chromatin structure. Nucleosomes are connected to each other by linker DNA. In the next level, nucleosome fold again into 30 nm fiber. They again fold into higher order structure. Condensed chromosome is about 700nm thick.
Thus the DNA are packed to fit in nucleus