An algorithm for studying cooperative transitions in DNA

Hunting the Cell Cycle Snark

In this very personal hunt for the meaning of the bacterial cell cycle, the snark, I briefly revisit and update some of the mechanisms we and many others have proposed to regulate the bacterial cell cycle. These mechanisms, which include the dynamics of calcium, membranes, hyperstructures, and networks, are based on physical and physico-chemical concepts such as ion condensation, phase transition, crowding, liquid crystal immiscibility, collective vibrational modes, reptation, and water availability. I draw on ideas from subjects such as the 'prebiotic ecology' and phenotypic diversity to help with the hunt. Given the fundamental nature of the snark, I would expect that its capture would make sense of other parts of biology. The route, therefore, followed by the hunt has involved trying to answer questions like "why do cells replicate their DNA?", "why is DNA replication semi-conservative?", "why is DNA a double helix?", "why do cells divide?", "is cell division a spandrel?", and "how are catabolism and anabolism balanced?". Here, I propose some relatively unexplored, experimental approaches to testing snark-related hypotheses and, finally, I propose some possibly original ideas about DNA packing, about phase separations, and about computing with populations of virtual bacteria.

Quantitative electron microscopic analysis of DNA-protein interactions

Electron microscopy offers a unique potentiality to visualize individual molecules. For the last 30 years it has been used to study the structure and the interactions of various biological macromolecules. The contribution of electron microscopy is important because of its capacity to demonstrate the existence of conformational structures such as kinks, bents, loops, etc., either on naked DNA, or on DNA associated with various proteins or ligands. Increasing interest was given to such observations when it was found that they provide a direct visualization of interacting molecules involved in DNA metabolism and gene regulation. Technical advances in the preparation of the specimens, their observation in the electron microscope, and the image processing by computers have allowed the shifting from qualitative to quantitative analysis, as illustrated by a few examples from our laboratory.

Transcription in vivo directed by consensus sequences of E.coli promoters: their context heavily affects efficiencies and start sites

We studied in vivo transcription and gene expression directed by a series of synthetic sequences, bearing the consensus hexamer (CH) pair of E.coli promoters in various contexts. The results demonstrate that, for the contexts tested, the CH pair supports transcription activity and gene expression, whether the spacer linking them is AT or GC rich, or is as short as 14 bp or as large as 26 bp (standard size 17 bp). However, we find that the context influences transcription efficiency by as much as an order of magnitude, and is able to scatter transcription start sites over a region of as much as 30 bp, including start sites within a CH or even between the two sequences of the CH pair. The results demonstrate that, although the CH pair can be sufficient for directing transcription by E.coli RNAP, important determinants for promoter activity are at least in part contained in the context of the consensus sequences; they advocate a synergic interplay of signals borne by the CH pair and its context, extending over all parts of the promoter sequence. A two-step model is proposed, in which properly located consensus sequences provide RNAP with facilities required for stereospecific docking along the promoter sequence; the result would be a sharp change in the local environment of the double helix inducing local isothermal unwinding. The size of the loop (related to the AT constraint in the promoter) and the extend of the environmental change required for unwinding would determine the rate of transcriptionally competent complex formation, positioning and grouping of start sites.

In vivo gene expression directed by synthetic promoter constructions restricted to the -10 and -35 consensus hexamers of E. coli

Two synthetic DNA sequences, carrying no other known E. coli promoter element than the consensus hexamers (CH) TTGACA (CH-35) and TATAAT CH(-10), spaced by 17 bp, were inserted in pBR329, in a position enabling transcription of the complete Cmr gene. The region upstream of the Cmr transcription start was carefully cleared of w.t. promoter elements (full deletion of the wild type (w.t.) Cmr promoter upstream +2 and large portion of an upstream coding sequence). Both synthetic promoters, which differ only by the sequences of the spacers (non consensus, constrained in AT or GC) support in vivo high level Cmr gene expression. The GC rich spacer is associated with transcription start at the usual +1 position, but with the AT rich spacer, transcription starts at several places, mainly in CH(-10). Rearranged promoter sequences derived from the synthetic ones upon transformation with partly ligated plasmids, yield new insights on the role of the standard CH pair, the size of the spacer and the sequence downstream of CH(-10).