title: Building bridges within the bacterial chromosome.
abstract: All organisms must dramatically compact their genomes to accommodate DNA within the cell. Bacteria use a set of DNA-binding proteins with low sequence specificity called nucleoid-associated proteins (NAPs) to assist in chromosome condensation and organization. By bending or bridging DNA, NAPs also facilitate chromosome segregation and regulate gene expression. Over the past decade, emerging single-molecule and chromosome conformation capture techniques have investigated the molecular mechanisms by which NAPs remodel and organize the bacterial chromosome. In this review we describe how such approaches reveal the biochemical mechanisms of three NAPs that are believed to facilitate DNA bridging: histone-like nucleoid structuring protein (H-NS), ParB, and structural maintenance of chromosomes (SMC). These three proteins form qualitatively different DNA bridges, leading to varied effects on transcription and chromosome segregation.
authors: Harvard Biophysics Program, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors: Dan
authors: D
authors: Song
authors: Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: joseph_loparo@hms.harvard.edu.
authors: Joseph J
authors: JJ
authors: Loparo
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D020090:Chromosome Segregation / Q000235:genetics*; D002876:Chromosomes, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins
keywords: DNA bridging; chromosome organization; nucleoid-associated protein; single molecule; structural maintenance of chromosomes