Work

The Precarious Prokaryotic Chromosome

Year: 2014

Type: article

Abstract: Evolutionary selection for optimal genome preservation, replication, and expression should yield similar chromosome organizations in any type of cells. And yet, the chromosome organization is surprisingly different between eukaryotes and prokaryotes. The nuclear versus cytoplasmic accommodation of genetic material accounts for the distinct eukaryotic and prokaryotic modes of genome evolution, but it falls short of explaining the differences in the chromosome organization. I propose that the two distinct ways to organize chromosomes are driven by the differences between the global-consecutive chromosome cycle of eukaryotes and the local-concurrent chromosome cycle of prokaryotes. Specifically, progressive chromosome segregation in prokaryotes demands a single duplicon per chromosome, while other "precarious" features of the prokaryotic chromosomes can be viewed as compensations for this severe restriction.

Source: Journal of Bacteriology

DOI: 10.1128/jb.00022-14

Author: Andrei Kuzminov

Institution: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Language: English

Topic: Bacterial Genetics and Biotechnology

Subfield: Genetics

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Awards: Chromosomal death due to misincorporation of wrong material into DNA, G802706469