Molecular Cytogenetics (Mar 2019)

Cell maps on the human genome

  • Christopher Cherniak,
  • Raul Rodriguez-Esteban

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13039-019-0426-4
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
pp. 1 – 6

Abstract

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Abstract Background We have previously described evidence for a statistically significant, global, supra-chromosomal representation of the human body that appears to stretch over the entire genome. Results Here, we extend the genome mapping model, zooming down to the typical individual animal cell. Its cellular organization appears to be significantly mapped onto the human genome: Evidence is reported for a “cellunculus” — on the model of a homunculus, on the H. sapiens genome. Conclusions Basic cell structure turns out to map similarly onto the total genome, mirrored via genes that express in particular cell organelles (e.g., “nuclear membrane”). Similar cell maps may also appear on individual chromosomes that map topologically on the dorsoventral body axis. This seems to constitute some of the basic structural and functional organization of nucleus and chromosome architecture.

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