How to build segregation complexes in bacteria: Use bridges

Abstract

In this issue of Genes & Development, Graham and colleagues (pp. 1228-1238) examine how ParBs, which bind to prokaryotic centromere-like partition sites, spread into nearby nonspecific DNA and assemble into higher-order protein-DNA complexes. Spreading is accomplished by looping rather than one-dimensional filamentation, thereby compacting the DNA into an extensively bridged complex. © 2014 Funnell.