Conformation and segregation
of the bacterial chromosome

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.