Spin-echo small-angle neutron scattering study of the structure organization of the chromatin in biological cell

International Conference on Polarised Neutrons for Condensed Matter Investigations

Iashina, E.G.^1,2,4 ; Bouwman, W.G.^3 ; Duif, C.P.^3 ; Filatov, M.V.^2,4 ; Grigoriev, S.V.^1,2,4

Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute NRC KI, Gatchina, St-Petersburg

188300, Russia^1

Saint-Petersburg State University, Saint-Petersburg

198504, Russia^2

Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 15, Delft

2629 JB, Netherlands^3

Department of Physics, University of Bristol, Tyndalls Park Road, Bristol

BS8 1TS, United Kingdom^4

关键词: Correlation lengths;    Eukaryotic cells;    Exponential decays;    Internal structure;    Neutron wavelengths;    Pair correlation functions;    Small angle scattering;    Spin-echo small-angle neutron scattering;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/862/1/012010/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/862/1/012010

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

Spin-echo small-angle scattering (SESANS) technique is a method to measure the structure of materials from nano- to micrmeter length scales. This method could be important for studying the packaging of DNA in the eukaryotic cell. We measured the SESANS function from chicken erythrocyte nuclei which is well fitted by the exponential function G(z) = exp(-z/ξ), where ξ is the correlation length of a nucleus (in experimental data ξ = 3, 3 μm). The exponential decay of G(z) corresponds to the logarithmic pair correlation function γ(r) = ln(ξ/r). As the sensitivity of the SESANS signal depends on the neutron wavelength, we propose the SESANS setup with the changeable wavelength in the range from 2 to 12 Å. Such option allows one to study in great detail the internal structure of the biological cell in the length scale from 10-2μm to 10 μm.