Escherichia coli Chromosomal Loci Segregate from Midcell with Universal Dynamics.

ABSTRACT: The structure of the Escherichia coli chromosome is inherently dynamic over the duration of the cell cycle. Genetic loci undergo both stochastic motion around their initial positions and directed motion to opposite poles of the rod-shaped cell during segregation. We developed a quantitative method to characterize cell-cycle dynamics of the E. coli chromosome to probe the chromosomal steady-state mobility and segregation process. By tracking fluorescently labeled chromosomal loci in thousands of cells throughout the entire cell cycle, our method allows for the statistical analysis of locus position and motion, the step-size distribution for movement during segregation, and the locus drift velocity. The robust statistics of our detailed analysis of the wild-type E. coli nucleoid allow us to

SUBMITTER: Cass JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4919604 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature