Mihnea's lectures Flashcards
(147 cards)
the bacterial chromosome is linearly compacted in what fashion?
compacted in an ordered and heirarchical fashion in lockstep with DNA replication
the bacterial chromosome is compacted into a functional 3D form to allow what?
replication, recombination, segregation and transcription
what controls the architecture of the bacterial chromosome?
specialised proteins
is the bacterial chromosome enclosed by a membrane?
nah
the organisation of the bacterial chromosome recapitulates the genetic map - what are some important positions?
oriC (origin of replication) and ter (replication terminus) - these are on opposite poles i.e. pole anchoring proteins
the left and right chromosomal arms
how do the pole-anchoring proteins coordinate replication?
during replication the new DNA moves to its relative position
this means that each daughter cell inherits a full copy of the genome with the same structure
how does chromosome configuration differ?
it differs between bacteria and can also differ based on the growth conditions
what are chromosome interaction domains (CIDs)?
well packaged domains of DNA with lots of DNA-DNA interactions and insulated from flanking regions
boundaries between CIDs are highly expressed genes (HEGs) which are less ordered (hence higher expression cause easier access)
HEGs are usually housekeeping genes
CIDs are around 10-10^2 kbp and ordered into loops by other proteins called NAPs
the number of CIDs differs based on the growth conditions (makes sense cause different conditions requires different genes)
how are e. coli macrodomains kept together?
ter protein (matP) keeps ter in a compacted form by binding matS sites which are exclusively present in the ter macrodomain
matP binds matS site as a dimer and can interact with membranes anchoring the domain in place
what does the isolated nucleoid contain by weight?
80% DNA, 10% RNA, 10% protein
are all bacterial chromsomes circular?
most are
some are linear tho
in eukaryotes, DNA is condensed by histones - how is DNA condensed in bacteria?
DNA is organised in plectonomic supercoils by specific proteins which bend the DNA
different conformations are governed by nuclear-associated proteins (NAPs)
what are structural maintenance of chromosome (SMC) complexes?
have a hinge dimerisation domain and an ATPase head domain (on this domain is kite) and arms extending between these
this allows it to wrap around a loop of DNA and excise it (from the previously highly ordered form) making it accessible for transcription
so the SMC complexes embrace a pair of DNA segments as a single ring and dimerise making that region of DNA accessible
what is histone-like nucleoid structuring protein (H-NS)
small polypeptide with AT rich segments which binds the DNA using a c-terminal arginine hook motif
they form head to head and tail to tail interactions to form a long thread of proteins which interact with domains on the DNA
this allows formation of rigid DNA filaments or it can also allow bridging of two DNA filaments
this can also obscure RNAP binding sites and/or transcription activators leading to gene expression
how are H-NS proteins an example of convergent evolution?
they all have an arginine which allows DNA binding and are present in many bacterial species
what proteins allow sharp DNA bending?
HU has an alpha and beta domain allowing formation of homodimers and heterodimers and also a flexible hinge allowing a range of different angles. Very abundant and can allow formation of octamers
IHF causes much tighter 160 degree hairpin bends
what protein allows DNA light bending?
Fis is highly expressed during rapid cell division and is conserved in most gram-negatives
bends DNA by 50-90 degrees (hence light) to form stable nucleoprotein complexes
can regulate transcription
what are some techniques for studying the bacterial chromosome?
Hi-C
fluorescent repressor operator system
chromatin immunoprecipitation
what is Hi-C?
high-throughput method for studying the bacterial chromosome
fixed chromatin undergoes restriction digestion and DNA overhangs filled in with biotin-labelled nucleotides. It then undergoes ligation and labels are removed from unligated ends
then undergoes reverse crosslinking and fragmentation and labeled fragments are enriched
this can then undergo adapter ligation and amplification and then high-throughput sequencing
what is fluorescent repressor operator system?
used to look at specific genes
genes are labelled and then changes can be induced? (e.g. pH, osmolarity, temp.) allowing visualisation of if/if not genes undergo transcription
what is chromatin immunoprecipitation?
fixed chromatin undergoes fragmentation, exonuclease treatment and immunoprecipitation. DNA can then be purified and undergo adapter ligation and amplification followed by high-throughput sequencing
this allows you to see what regions of DNA have been bound and assess the specificity of this
what occurs due to the dsDNA circular molecule being topologically constrained?
theres no rotation of free ends so the genome organises into plectonemic supercoils constrained by NAPs
RNAP induces -/+ supercoiling where overwinding occurs at one end (+) and underwinding at the other (-)
what is the solution for supercoiling?
topoisomerases bind and cut DNA - they cut the plectonemic domains so that just that domain will unwind
type I topoisomerases cut one DNA strand and type II topoisomerases cut two
outline bacterial chromosome segregation?
separation of newly replicated origins
condensation mediated by supercoiling
origin segregation facilitated by a highly conserved partitioning system
bulk chromosome segregation reverses? the orderly compaction of replicated sisters along adjacent DNA segments
condensation is mediated by the concerted action of supercoiling and NAPs and topoisomerases enriched ahead of replication forks and transcription bubbles
transport of replication termini at the division septum