Stephane Duigou

eLife assessment This important work combines DNA contact analysis and controlled genome rearrangements to investigate the processes that organize the E. coli chromosome, with a particular focus on how the SMC-related complex MukBEF is regulated. The evidence supporting the conclusions is compelling, with time-resolved experiments and analysis of mutant strains. The work will be of broad interest to chromosome biologists and bacterial cell biologists.

Abstract Structural maintenance of chromosomes (SMC) complexes share conserved structures and serve a common role in maintaining chromosome architecture. In the bacterium Escherichia coli, the SMC complex MukBEF is necessary for rapid growth and the accurate segregation and positioning of the chromosome, although the specific molecular mechanisms involved are still unknown.

Abstract While different features for the activity of the bacterial canonical SMC complex, Smc-ScpAB, have been described in different bacteria, not much is known about the way chromosomes in enterobacteria interact with their SMC complex, MukBEF. Here we used a number of in vivo assays in E. coli to reveal how MukBEF controls chromosome conformation and how the MatP/matS system prevents MukBEF activity.