The proper gene expression is crucial to ensure normal cellular function and organism development. In eukaryotes, genome is organized into chromatin, a dynamic DNA-protein complex serves as a powerful platform that shapes genome function. Understanding how chromatin is organized is essential to understand genome regulation in physiology and how its dysregulation leads to diseases.

This collection focuses on existing methods used to study chromatin structure and functions inside the nucleus as well as in isolation in vitro. These include quantitative methods (3C-based methods) to map the genome architecture at both organismal level and at single cell resolution, a group of techniques that provide important insights of how chromatin structure intimately interwinds with genome function. It also include analytical ultracentrifugation, a technique that has contributed extensively to our understanding of chromatin structure-dynamics. Last but not the least, the collection includes imaging techniques that allow direct visualization of chromatin across different scales. Specifically, super-resolution imaging have provided in situ nanoscale structure information on chromatin in cells. Techniques based on cryo-electron microscopy have emerged as important tools to study chromatin organization, generating structural information from nanometre scale down to near atomic resolution.

In summary, this collection not only provides detailed protocols of these methods, it also serves as a platform to introduce recent methodological advancements in a rapidly evolving field of chromatin biology.