Structural insights into the 3D genome folding and expression

Chromatin is the complex structure formed by the association of nuclear proteins and DNA. It brings about condensation and organisation of chromosomes during the cell cycle, enabling fundamental processes such as gene expression, recombination, DNA repair, and mitosis. A large number of protein complexes form a network within chromatin, carrying out different tasks and distinguishing the high versatility and dynamicity of this structure. My PhD project is centred around the structural and functional characterisation of three protein complexes that carry out fundamental chromosomal transactions. In the first part of my PhD project, I studied the assembly of the IFN‐β enhanceosome and the chromatin modifier p300 as a prototypical system to acquire insights into the molecular crosstalk that regulate transcription through enhancers. Moreover, I investigated different assemblies of the cohesin complex with its partners and the way these interactions determine specific roles in different cellular contexts. In particular, I studied two complexes formed by cohesin in association with two different factors that play key roles during mitosis and meiosis, respectively. By deepening the understanding of how these molecular machineries play their role in the three‐dimensional organisation of the genome it will be possible to broaden the knowledge of the complexity that lays behind essential cell activities like gene expression regulation, chromosomal alignment along the mitotic axis and recombination during meiosis.