How Chromosomes Organize and Genes Interact Needs Rethinking, Study Finds

February 13, 2020 • by Esther Robards-Forbes

Bacterial DNA much more twisted than originally thought.

Artist illustration of phage superimposed over multicolored background

Akin to the well-mixed colors in Jackson Pollock’s ‘Convergence’, the findings reported by transposable phage Mu highlight that all loci in the E. coli genome intermix spatially to promote widespread contacts, independent of linear distance. Here Pollock’s famous painting was passed through a watershed segmentation filter with colors chosen randomly to provide the same sense of a well-mixed image or chromosome. The part inside of the stylized Mu remains unperturbed by the filter to convey that Mu allows us to see how things really are. Concept credit: Rasika Harshey and David Walker. Image credit: David Walker.


microscopic image of phages

Electron microscope images of the Mu bacteriophage. Courtesy of Rasika Harshey.

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