Telomeres isolated from chicken erythrocyte nuclei following restriction endonuclease treatment, and imaged by transmission EM after uranyl acetate negative staining. Specimen was also labeled with immunogold using an anti-TRF1 primary antibody. Telomere chromatin adopts a characteristic looped conformation which likely aids in protection from the rapid degradation that occurs with free DNA ends.
Biological Process: Chromatin assembly, Chromatin organization
Image recorded with FEI Tecnai 12 TEM at 100KV and recorded on 2048x2048 CCD with 2x binning. See also: T Nikitina and C L Woodcock 2004 Closed chromatin loops at the ends of chromosomes. J Cell Biol 166:161-165.
Author: Tatiana Nikitina
Source: The Cell: An Image Library