Fractal analysis of replication site images of the human cell nucleus

Epi-fluorescent microscopic images of the mammalian cell nucleus taken during the early, mid and late S (synthetic) phase of the cell cycle suggest that the mass of replicating DNA that belong to the cell nucleus can be characterized as a space filling fractal curve. We reason from a biological standpoint and our understanding of naturally occurring fractals that our microscopic images reveal portions of the spatially complex DNA molecule and present methods for computing the fractal dimensions of the images. Results presented here suggest that our methodology based on fractal properties can distinguish replication of DNA occurring in early versus mid or late S-phase.