Living without 30 nm chromatin fibers

Eukaryotic genomes must be folded and compacted to fit within the restricted volume of the nucleus. According to the current paradigm, strings of nucleosomes, termed 10 nm chromatin fibers, constitute the template of transcriptionally active genomic material. The majority of the genome is maintained in a silenced state through higher-order chromatin assemblies, based on the 30 nm chromatin fiber, which excludes activating regulatory factors. New experimental approaches, however, including chromatin conformation capture and cryo-electron microscopy, call into question the in situ evidence for the 30 nm chromatin fiber. We suggest that the organization of the genome based on 10 nm chromatin fibers is sufficient to describe the complexities of nuclear organization and gene regulation.