1996•PubMedRequires access
[The bacterial nucleoid].
M. Carmen Gómez‐Eichelmann, Rafael Camacho‐Carranza
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Abstract
The bacterial genome is present in the cell within a complex structure, the nucleoid. The nucleoid contains the genomic DNA, and molecules of RNA and proteins. The main proteins of the nucleoid are: RNA polymerase, topoisomerases and the histone-like proteins: HU, H-NS (H1), H, HLP1, IHF and FIS. The DNA molecule in the nucleoid is under helical tension or supercoiling and is organized into 43 +/- 10 topodomains. DNA supercoiling is generated by the activity of the topoisomerases and by DNA-protein interactions. In this review, we analize current knowledge in Escherichia coli about genome organization and proteins of the nucleoid.