Loops, topologically associating domains, compartments, and territories are elastic and robust to dramatic nuclear volume swelling.

Layers of genome organization are becoming increasingly better characterized, but less is known about how these structures respond to perturbation or shape changes. Low-salt swelling of isolated chromatin fibers or nuclei has been used for decades to investigate the structural properties of chromatin. But, visible changes in chromatin appearance have not been linked to known building blocks of genome structure or features along the genome sequence.