Spatial organization of the flow of genetic information in bacteria

Paula Montero Llopis, Audrey F. Jackson, Oleksii Sliusarenko, Ivan Surovtsev, Jennifer Heinritz, Thierry Emonet and Christine Jacobs-Wagner ()
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Paula Montero Llopis: Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA
Audrey F. Jackson: Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA
Oleksii Sliusarenko: Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA
Ivan Surovtsev: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA
Jennifer Heinritz: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA
Thierry Emonet: Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA
Christine Jacobs-Wagner: Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA

Nature, 2010, vol. 466, issue 7302, 77-81

Abstract: Abstract Eukaryotic cells spatially organize mRNA processes such as translation and mRNA decay. Much less is clear in bacterial cells where the spatial distribution of mature mRNA remains ambiguous. Using a sensitive method based on quantitative fluorescence in situ hybridization, we show here that in Caulobacter crescentus and Escherichia coli, chromosomally expressed mRNAs largely display limited dispersion from their site of transcription during their lifetime. We estimate apparent diffusion coefficients at least two orders of magnitude lower than expected for freely diffusing mRNA, and provide evidence in C. crescentus that this mRNA localization restricts ribosomal mobility. Furthermore, C. crescentus RNase E appears associated with the DNA independently of its mRNA substrates. Collectively, our findings show that bacteria can spatially organize translation and, potentially, mRNA decay by using the chromosome layout as a template. This chromosome-centric organization has important implications for cellular physiology and for our understanding of gene expression in bacteria.

Date: 2010
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DOI: 10.1038/nature09152

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