Accepted_test

Cohesin degradation effect on mechanical properties of human colon tumor cells
by E. Kabirova | A. Yunusova | A. Khabarova | N. Battulin | Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Novosibirsk, Russia | Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Novosibirsk, Russia | Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Novosibirsk, Russia | Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Novosibirsk, Russia
Abstract ID: 160
Event: BGRS-abstracts
Sections: [Sym 1] Section “Fundamental and applied 3D genomics”

Cohesin impacts chromatin structure and contributes to (1) genome functioning by establishing enhancer-promoter interactions which are essential for an accurate gene expression; (2) genome stability by restraining DNA strands after the break which ensures DNA repair. Since cohesin influences the genome through its spatial structure, it is of interest whether cohesin provides mechanical stability to the nucleus. We aimed to assess cohesin influence on mechanical properties of a cell, in particular cell resistance to mechanical stress. To tackle the question we utilised auxin-inducible degron of the RAD21 subunit of the cohesin protein complex, which helped us to study the rapid effect of cohesin degradation. We performed "scratch wound" and transwell migration assays to study how cohesin absence impacts human colon tumor cells (HCT116) ability to resist mechanical deformations. We found that the effect of cohesin degradation in the described tests was mild. We suggest that cohesin depletion does not affect the migratory properties of cells when moving along a flat surface ("scratch wound" assay) or migrating in a gradient of serum (transwell assay). Though there is a possibility that cohesin influence on mechanical properties of a nucleus is low relative to other features such as cytoskeleton or nuclear lamina, and distinguishing level of their contribution on nucleus mechanical properties is the subject of the further research.