Scientists have finally discovered the origin of chromatin as well as the mysterious ancestors of eukaryotes

In almost every human cell, a nucleus that is only one millionth of a meter wide must contain two meters of DNA

Histones are found in eukaryotes, the former being organisms with special cellular mechanisms such as nuclei and microtubules, and the latter being a branch of the tree of life, made up of single-celled prokaryotic microorganisms, meaning they have no nucleus

Enzymes alter histones in eukaryotic cells, constantly reshaping the genome to regulate gene expression and other genomic processes

Researchers at the Center for Genome Regulation (CRG) are now revealing that nature's reservoir solutions first evolved

To travel back in time, the researchers used information from the genomes of current organisms to group life forms

The researchers found that prokaryotes lacked the mechanisms needed to alter histone proteins, meaning that archaeal chromatin had basic structural functions but did not regulate the genome

"Our findings emphasize that the structure and regulatory effects of chromatin are as old

Using sequence data, the researchers reconstructed the gene pool held by the "last eukaryotes common ancestor," the cells that produced all eukaryotes

Dr Sebe-Pedrós, a CRG researcher and senior author of the study and a CRG researcher, noted: "Viruses and transposon factors are genomic parasites that often attack the DNA of single-celled organisms

According to the study's authors, future studies could look at the evolution of the asgardian archaea histone-modifying enzyme, a microbe named after a mythical region inhabited by Norwegian gods and often described as an evolutionary ladder

References: A phylogenetic and proteomic reconstruction of eukaryotic chromatin evolution