DNA doesn't just float around in your cells—it actually moves in perfectly timed "waves" across your chromosomes.
bioRxiv · March 13, 2026 · 10.64898/2026.03.10.710930
Why it matters
Standard models assumed that different parts of the genome moved independently like particles in a liquid. This discovery shows that DNA strands actually move in large, coherent blocks, revealing that the nucleus is far more physically interconnected and organized than previously thought.
From the abstract
Essential nuclear processes require pairs of chromosomal loci to find each other in three-dimensional space. Polymer models of chromosome dynamics typically assume that the stochastic forces driving such locus motion are spatially uncorrelated, implying that relative diffusion follows directly from single-locus dynamics. Here we show that this assumption fails in living cells. Using live-cell imaging in fly embryos and mouse embryonic stem cells, we find that pairwise locus distances diffuse mar