Deinococcus radiodurans HU: a versatile architect of nucleoid structure and plasticity
Abstract
Nucleoid-associated proteins are known to compact and organise bacterial genomes, but how their local DNA binding shapes higher-order chromatin architecture remains unclear. Using in vitro and in situ approaches, we investigated how Deinococcus radiodurans HU (DrHU) orchestrates nucleoid organisation. DrHU engages DNA through two synergistic binding modes: high-affinity β-hairpin-mediated stabilisation of DNA loops and low-affinity, multivalent interaction via its N-terminal tail, driving parallel, uniformly spaced DNA alignment. In vitro, DrHU organises supercoiled plasmid DNA into regular 2D lattices of double-spirals, while in situ, UV-C light induces a nucleoid transition from a loose DNA mesh to a blue liquid crystalline phase characterised by DNA swirls. The striking structural similarity and shared inter-filament spacing of these two arrangements suggests that DrHU plays a pivotal role in genome organisation through its versatile binding properties that enable DNA loop stabilisation, protection and DNA bridging, linking molecular interactions to 3D genome ordering and stress-induced remodelling.
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BibTeX
@misc{bernhard2026deinococcus,
title = {{Deinococcus radiodurans HU: a versatile architect of nucleoid structure and plasticity}},
author = {Harald Bernhard and Salvatore de Bonis and Anne-Sophie Banneville and Maria Bacia-Verloop and Lorenzo Gaifas and Brandon Le Bon and Georg Wolff and Michael Hall and Roy Gonzalez-Aleman and Francois Dehez and Irina Gutsche and Joanna Timmins},
howpublished = {HAL},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05847956v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Deinococcus radiodurans HU: a versatile architect of nucleoid structure and plasticity
AU - Harald Bernhard
AU - Salvatore de Bonis
AU - Anne-Sophie Banneville
AU - Maria Bacia-Verloop
AU - Lorenzo Gaifas
AU - Brandon Le Bon
AU - Georg Wolff
AU - Michael Hall
AU - Roy Gonzalez-Aleman
AU - Francois Dehez
AU - Irina Gutsche
AU - Joanna Timmins
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/18
PB - HAL
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05847956v1
AB - Nucleoid-associated proteins are known to compact and organise bacterial genomes, but how their local DNA binding shapes higher-order chromatin architecture remains unclear. Using in vitro and in situ approaches, we investigated how Deinococcus radiodurans HU (DrHU) orchestrates nucleoid organisation. DrHU engages DNA through two synergistic binding modes: high-affinity β-hairpin-mediated stabilisation of DNA loops and low-affinity, multivalent interaction via its N-terminal tail, driving parallel, uniformly spaced DNA alignment. In vitro, DrHU organises supercoiled plasmid DNA into regular 2D lattices of double-spirals, while in situ, UV-C light induces a nucleoid transition from a loose DNA mesh to a blue liquid crystalline phase characterised by DNA swirls. The striking structural similarity and shared inter-filament spacing of these two arrangements suggests that DrHU plays a pivotal role in genome organisation through its versatile binding properties that enable DNA loop stabilisation, protection and DNA bridging, linking molecular interactions to 3D genome ordering and stress-induced remodelling.
ER -