Coarse-Grained Model of the Demixing of DNA and Non-Binding Globular Macromolecules

Tethered Particle Motion Technique in Crowded Media: Compaction of DNA by Globular Macromolecules

Tethered Particle Motion (TPM) is a single molecule technique, which consists in tracking the motion of a nanoparticle (NP) immersed in a fluid and tethered to a glass surface by a DNA molecule. The present work addresses the question of the applicability of TPM to fluids which contain crowders at volume fractions ranging from that of the nucleoid of living bacteria (around 30%) up to the jamming threshold (around 66%). In particular, we were interested in determining whether TPM can be used to characterize the compaction of DNA by globular crowders. To this end, extensive Brownian Dynamics simulations were performed with a specifically built coarse-grained model. Analysis of the simulations reveals several effects not observed in dilute media, which impose constraints on the TPM setup. In particular, the Tethered Fluorophore Motion (TFM) technique, which consists in replacing the NP by a much smaller fluorophore, is probably better suited than standard TPM. Moreover, a sample preparation technique which does not involve hydrophilic patches may be required. Finally, the use of a DNA brush may be needed to achieve DNA concentrations close to in vivo ones.

Differentiating the roles of proteins and polysomes in nucleoid size homeostasis in Escherichia coli

A defining feature of the bacterial cytosolic interior is a distinct membrane-less organelle, the nucleoid, that contains the chromosomal DNA. Although increasing experimental evidence indicates that macromolecular crowding is the dominant mechanism for nucleoid formation, it has remained unclear which crowders control nucleoid volume. It is commonly assumed that polyribosomes play a dominant role, yet the volume fraction of soluble proteins in the cytosol is comparable with that of polyribosomes. Here, we develop a free energy-based model for the cytosolic interior of a bacterial cell to distinguish contributions arising from polyribosomes and cytosolic proteins in nucleoid volume control. The parameters of the model are determined from the existing experimental data. We show that, while the polysomes establish the existence of the nucleoid as a distinct phase, the proteins control the nucleoid volume in physiologically relevant conditions. Our model explains experimental findings in Escherichia coli that the nucleoid compaction curves in osmotic shock measurements do not depend on cell growth rate and that dissociation of polysomes in slow growth rates does not lead to significant nucleoid expansion, while the nucleoid phase disappears in fastest growth rates. Furthermore, the model predicts a cross-over in the exclusion of crowders by their linear dimensions from the nucleoid phase: below the cross-over of 30-50 nm, the concentration of crowders in the nucleoid phase decreases linearly as a function of the crowder diameter, while decreasing exponentially above the cross-over size. Our work points to the possibility that bacterial cells maintain nucleoid size and protein concentration homeostasis via feedback in which protein concentration controls nucleoid dimensions and the nucleoid dimensions control protein synthesis rate.

Organization of the bacterial nucleoid by DNA-bridging proteins and globular crowders

The genomic DNA of bacteria occupies only a fraction of the cell called the nucleoid, although it is not bounded by any membrane and would occupy a volume hundreds of times larger than the cell in the absence of constraints. The two most important contributions to the compaction of the DNA coil are the cross-linking of the DNA by nucleoid proteins (like H-NS and StpA) and the demixing of DNA and other abundant globular macromolecules which do not bind to the DNA (like ribosomes). The present work deals with the interplay of DNA-bridging proteins and globular macromolecular crowders, with the goal of determining the extent to which they collaborate in organizing the nucleoid. In order to answer this question, a coarse-grained model was developed and its properties were investigated through Brownian dynamics simulations. These simulations reveal that the radius of gyration of the DNA coil decreases linearly with the effective volume ratio of globular crowders and the number of DNA bridges formed by nucleoid proteins in the whole range of physiological values. Moreover, simulations highlight the fact that the number of DNA bridges formed by nucleoid proteins depends crucially on their ability to self-associate (oligomerize). An explanation for this result is proposed in terms of the mean distance between DNA segments and the capacity of proteins to maintain DNA-bridging in spite of the thermal fluctuations of the DNA network. Finally, simulations indicate that non-associating proteins preserve a high mobility inside the nucleoid while contributing to its compaction, leading to a DNA/protein complex which looks like a liquid droplet. In contrast, self-associating proteins form a little deformable network which cross-links the DNA chain, with the consequence that the DNA/protein complex looks more like a gel.

Impact of Self-Association on the Architectural Properties of Bacterial Nucleoid Proteins

The chromosomal DNA of bacteria is folded into a compact body called the nucleoid, which is composed essentially of DNA (∼80%), RNA (∼10%), and a number of different proteins (∼10%). These nucleoid proteins act as regulators of gene expression and influence the organization of the nucleoid by bridging, bending, or wrapping the DNA. These so-called architectural properties of nucleoid proteins are still poorly understood. For example, the reason why certain proteins compact the DNA coil in certain environments but make the DNA more rigid instead in other environments is the subject of ongoing debates. Here, we address the question of the impact of the self-association of nucleoid proteins on their architectural properties and try to determine whether differences in self-association are sufficient to induce large changes in the organization of the DNA coil. More specifically, we developed two coarse-grained models of proteins, which interact identically with the DNA but self-associate differently by forming either clusters or filaments in the absence of the DNA. We showed through Brownian dynamics simulations that self-association of the proteins dramatically increases their ability to shape the DNA coil. Moreover, we observed that cluster-forming proteins significantly compact the DNA coil (similar to the DNA-bridging mode of H-NS proteins), whereas filament-forming proteins significantly increase the stiffness of the DNA chain instead (similar to the DNA-stiffening mode of H-NS proteins). This work consequently suggests that the knowledge of the DNA-binding properties of the proteins is in itself not sufficient to understand their architectural properties. Rather, their self-association properties must also be investigated in detail because they might actually drive the formation of different DNA-protein complexes.

Requirements for DNA-Bridging Proteins to Act as Topological Barriers of the Bacterial Genome

Bacterial genomes have been shown to be partitioned into several-kilobase-long chromosomal domains that are topologically independent from each other, meaning that change of DNA superhelicity in one domain does not propagate to neighbors. Both in vivo and in vitro experiments have been performed to question the nature of the topological barriers at play, leading to several predictions on possible molecular actors. Here, we address the question of topological barriers using polymer models of supercoiled DNA chains that are constrained such as to mimic the action of predicted molecular actors. More specifically, we determine under which conditions DNA-bridging proteins may act as topological barriers. To this end, we developed a coarse-grained bead-and-spring model and investigated its properties through Brownian dynamics simulations. As a result, we find that DNA-bridging proteins must exert rather strong constraints on their binding sites; they must block the diffusion of the excess of twist through the two binding sites on the DNA molecule and, simultaneously, prevent the rotation of one DNA segment relative to the other one. Importantly, not all DNA-bridging proteins satisfy this second condition. For example, single bridges formed by proteins that bind DNA nonspecifically, like H-NS dimers, are expected to fail with this respect. Our findings might also explain, in the case of specific DNA-bridging proteins like LacI, why multiple bridges are required to create stable independent topological domains. Strikingly, when the relative rotation of the DNA segments is not prevented, relaxation results in complex intrication of the two domains. Moreover, although the value of the torsional stress in each domain may vary, their differential is preserved. Our work also predicts that nucleoid-associated proteins known to wrap DNA must form higher protein-DNA complexes to efficiently work as topological barriers.

Bacterial Nucleoid: Interplay of DNA Demixing and Supercoiling

This work addresses the question of the interplay of DNA demixing and supercoiling in bacterial cells. Demixing of DNA from other globular macromolecules results from the overall repulsion between all components of the system and leads to the formation of the nucleoid, which is the region of the cell that contains the genomic DNA in a rather compact form. Supercoiling describes the coiling of the axis of the DNA double helix to accommodate the torsional stress injected in the molecule by topoisomerases. Supercoiling is able to induce some compaction of the bacterial DNA, although to a lesser extent than demixing. In this work, we investigate the interplay of these two mechanisms with the goal of determining whether the total compaction ratio of the DNA is the mere sum or some more complex function of the compaction ratios due to each mechanism. To this end, we developed a coarse-grained bead-and-spring model and investigated its properties through Brownian dynamics simulations. This work reveals that there actually exist different regimes, depending on the crowder volume ratio and the DNA superhelical density. In particular, a regime in which the effects of DNA demixing and supercoiling on the compaction of the DNA coil simply add up is shown to exist up to moderate values of the superhelical density. In contrast, the mean radius of the DNA coil no longer decreases above this threshold and may even increase again for sufficiently large crowder concentrations. Finally, the model predicts that the DNA coil may depart from the spherical geometry very close to the jamming threshold as a trade-off between the need to minimize both the bending energy of the stiff plectonemes and the volume of the DNA coil to accommodate demixing.

Preferential Localization of the Bacterial Nucleoid

Prokaryotes do not make use of a nucleus membrane to segregate their genetic material from the cytoplasm, so that their nucleoid is potentially free to explore the whole volume of the cell. Nonetheless, high resolution images of bacteria with very compact nucleoids show that such spherical nucleoids are invariably positioned at the center of mononucleoid cells. The present work aims to determine whether such preferential localization results from generic (entropic) interactions between the nucleoid and the cell membrane or instead requires some specific mechanism, like the tethering of DNA at mid-cell or periodic fluctuations of the concentration gradient of given chemical species. To this end, we performed numerical simulations using a coarse-grained model based on the assumption that the formation of the nucleoid results from a segregative phase separation mechanism driven by the de-mixing of the DNA and non-binding globular macromolecules. These simulations show that the abrupt compaction of the DNA coil, which takes place at large crowder density, close to the jamming threshold, is accompanied by the re-localization of the DNA coil close to the regions of the bounding wall with the largest curvature, like the hemispherical caps of rod-like cells, as if the DNA coil were suddenly acquiring the localization properties of a solid sphere. This work therefore supports the hypothesis that the localization of compact nucleoids at regular cell positions involves either some anchoring of the DNA to the cell membrane or some dynamical localization mechanism.

A segregative phase separation scenario of the formation of the bacterial nucleoid

The mechanism responsible for the compaction of the genomic DNA of bacteria inside a structure called the nucleoid is a longstanding but still lively debated question. Most puzzling is the fact that the nucleoid occupies only a small fraction of the cell, although it is not separated from the rest of the cytoplasm by any membrane and would occupy a volume about a thousand times larger outside the cell. Here, by performing numerical simulations using coarse-grained models, we elaborate on the conjecture that the formation of the nucleoid may result from a segregative phase separation mechanism driven by the demixing of the DNA coil and non-binding globular macromolecules present in the cytoplasm, presumably functional ribosomes. Simulations performed with crowders having a spherical, dumbbell or octahedral geometry highlight the sensitive dependence of the level of DNA compaction on the dissymmetry of DNA/DNA, DNA/crowder, and crowder/crowder repulsive interactions, thereby supporting the segregative phase separation scenario. Simulations also consistently predict a much stronger DNA compaction close to the jamming threshold. Moreover, simulations performed with crowders of different sizes suggest that the final density distribution of each species results from the competition between thermodynamic forces and steric hindrance, so that bigger crowders are expelled selectively from the nucleoid only at moderate total crowder concentrations. This work leads to several predictions, which may eventually be tested experimentally.

Localization switching of a large object in a crowded cavity: A rigid/soft object prefers surface/inner positioning

For living cells in the real world, a large organelle is commonly positioned in the inner region away from membranes, such as the nucleus of eukaryotic cells, the nucleolus of nuclei, mitochondria, chloroplast, Golgi body, etc. It contradicts the expectation by the current depletion-force theory in that the larger particle should be excluded from the inner cell space onto cell boundaries in a crowding media. Here we simply model a sizable organelle as a soft-boundary large particle allowing crowders, which are smaller hard spheres in the model, to intrude across its boundary. The results of Monte Carlo simulation indicate that the preferential location of the larger particle switches from the periphery into the inner region of the cavity by increasing its softness. An integral equation theory is further developed to account for the structural features of the model, and the theoretical predictions are found consistent with our simulation results.

Role of Salt Valency in the Switch of H-NS Proteins between DNA-Bridging and DNA-Stiffening Modes

This work investigates the interactions of H-NS proteins and bacterial genomic DNA through computer simulations performed with a coarse-grained model. The model was developed specifically to study the switch of H-NS proteins from the DNA-stiffening to the DNA-bridging mode, which has been observed repeatedly upon addition of multivalent cations to the buffer but is still not understood. Unraveling the corresponding mechanism is all the more crucial, as the regulation properties of H-NS proteins, as well as other nucleoid proteins, are linked to their DNA-binding properties. The simulations reported here support a mechanism, according to which the primary role of multivalent cations consists in decreasing the strength of H-NS/DNA interactions compared to H-NS/H-NS interactions, with the latter ones becoming energetically favored with respect to the former ones above a certain threshold of the effective valency of the cations of the buffer. Below the threshold, H-NS dimers form filaments, which stretch along the DNA molecule but are quite inefficient in bridging genomically distant DNA sites (DNA-stiffening mode). In contrast, just above the threshold, H-NS dimers form three-dimensional clusters, which are able to connect DNA sites that are distant from the genomic point of view (DNA-bridging mode). The model provides clear rationales for the experimental observations that the switch between the two modes is a threshold effect and that the ability of H-NS dimers to form higher order oligomers is crucial for their bridging capabilities.