Unveiling the Role of Dps in the Organization of Mycobacterial Nucleoid

Ghatak, Payel and Karmakar, Kajari and Kasetty, Sanjay and Chatterji, Dipankar (2011) Unveiling the Role of Dps in the Organization of Mycobacterial Nucleoid. In: PLos One, 6 (1).

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Abstract

In order to preserve genetic information in stress conditions, bacterial DNA is organized into higher order nucleoid structure. In this paper, with the help of Atomic Force Microscopy, we show the different structural changes in mycobacterial nucleoid at different points of growth in the presence of different concentrations of glucose in the medium. We also observe that in Mycobacterium smegmatis, two different Dps proteins (Dps1 and Dps2) promote two types of nucleoid organizations. At the late stationary phase, under low glucose availability, Dps1 binds to DNA to form a very stable toroid structure. On the other hand, under the same condition, Dps2-DNA complex forms an incompletely condensed toroid and finally forms a further stable coral reef structure in the presence of RNA. This coral reef structure is stable in high concentration of bivalent ion like Mg2+.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	PLos One
Publisher:	Public Library of Science
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Molecular Biophysics Unit
Date Deposited:	30 Mar 2011 07:18
Last Modified:	30 Mar 2011 07:18
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/36175

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