Educator

Eukaryotic Genomes

• A eukaryotic cell has millions of base pairs of DNA that it must keep organized. During cell division, all of the DNA in a cell is replicated and segregated to the daughter cells. In order to keep the DNA organized, DNA is packaged into manageable pieces called chromosomes.

• In this Lesson, we'll discuss the packaging of DNA in eukaryotic cells and see how it affects gene expression.

• The levels of DNA packaging provide a mechanism for regulating transcription. DNA that contains many genes is not packaged as tightly as DNA that contains few genes, so it's more accessible for transcription.