Folding the genome into mitotic chromosomes

How linear DNA molecules are packaged into compact cylindrical chromosomes in preparation for cell division has remained one of the central outstanding questions in cell biology. Condensin is a highly conserved protein complex that universally determines large-scale DNA geometry during mitotic chromosome assembly. A wide range of recently developed approaches, including super resolution microscopy, single molecule imaging, Hi-C analyses and computational modeling, have profoundly changed how we view mitotic chromosomes. This review highlights recent discoveries on chromosome architecture and condensin function.