The chromatin polymer models assume a broad range of chromatin loop sizes and predict the observed distances between genomic loci and chromosome territories, as well as the probabilities of contacts being formed between given loci. These models apply physics-based approaches that highlight the importance of entropy for understanding nuclear organization… Read more… 

The Fraser and Bickmore model emphasizes the functional importance of giant chromatin loops, which originate from chromosome territories and expand across the nuclear space in order to share transcription factories. In this case, both cis- and trans- loops of decondensed chromatin can be co-expressed and co-regulated by the same transcription factory… Read more… 

The interchromatin network (ICN) model of chromosome territory organization predicts that intermingling chromatin fibers/loops can make both cis- (within the same chromosome) and trans- (between different chromosomes) contacts. This intermingling is uniform and makes distinction between the chromosome territory and interchromatin compartment functionally meaningless… Read more… 

With the development of high-throughput biochemical techniques, such as 3C (‘chromosome conformation capture’) and 4C (‘chromosome conformation capture-on-chip’ and ‘circular chromosome conformation capture’), numerous spatial interactions between neighbouring chromatin territories have been described. These descriptions have been supplemented with the construction of spatial proximity maps for the entire genome (e.g., for a human lymphoblastoid cell line). Together, these observations and physical simulations have led to the proposal of various models that aim to define the structural organization of chromosome territories… Read more…