Conformation and segregation
of the bacterial chromosome

Overview

Since the nucleoid was isolated from bacteria in the 1970s, two fundamental questions emerged and are still in the spotlight: how bacteria organize their chromosomes to fit inside the cell and how this nucleoid organization enables essential biological processes. During the last decades, the knowledge on bacterial chromosome organization advanced considerably and today, chromosomes are considered as highly organized and dynamic structures that are shaped by multiple factors in a multiscale manner. Chromosome folding and compaction results from a combination of processes, including DNA supercoiling, the formation of the bacterial chromatin composed of nucleoid-associated proteins (NAPs) bound to DNA, the condensation by structural maintenance of chromosome (SMC) complexes, macromolecular crowding, out-of-equilibrium processes such as replication and transcription, and the interaction with cellular structures.

Our model systems

Research highlights

In our lab, we use several bacterial model species to uncover the role of factors involved in the establishment of the multilayer organization of chromosome. We study not only the classical well-known factors involved in chromosome organization but also novel components that have been shown, recently, to dynamically shape the 3D structuring of the bacterial chromosomes. We focus on the different functional elements that control short-range organization and describe how they collaborate for the establishment of the higher-order folding and disposition of the chromosome.