The bacterial nucleoid-associated proteins, HU and Dps, condense DNA into context-dependent biphasic or multiphasic complex coacervates.

ABSTRACT: The bacterial chromosome, known as its nucleoid, is an amorphous assemblage of globular nucleoprotein domains. It exists in a state of phase separation from the cell's cytoplasm, as an irregularly-shaped, membrane-less, intracellular compartment. This state (the nature of which remains largely unknown) is maintained through bacterial generations ad infinitum. Here, we show that HU and Dps, two of the most abundant nucleoid-associated proteins (NAPs) of Escherichia coli, undergo spontaneous complex coacervation with different forms of DNA/RNA, both individually and in each other's presence, to cause accretion and compaction of DNA/RNA into liquid-liquid phase separated condensates in vitro. Upon mixing with nucleic acids, HU-A and HU-B form (a) biphasic heterotypic mixed condensates in whic

SUBMITTER: Gupta A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10141540 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature