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August 13, 2012

Long stretches of DNA fold into Peano curve-like structures in human genome

In 1890, Giuseppe Peano discovered the Peano curve, one-dimensional curves that densely fill higher-dimensional spaces. Three-dimensional mapping of the human genome suggests that long stretches of DNA fold into Peano curve-like structures like the one pictured here.

[Research supported in part by a U.S. National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.]

Learn more in the Harvard Gazette story Scientists have deciphered 3D structure of the human genome. (Date of Image: 2009)

Credit: Leonid A. Mirny and Erez Lieberman-Aiden


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