TY - JOUR TI - Self-organised segregation of bacterial chromosomal origins AU - Hofmann, Andreas AU - Mäkelä, Jarno AU - Sherratt, David J AU - Heermann, Dieter AU - Murray, Seán M A2 - Goldstein, Raymond E A2 - Barkai, Naama VL - 8 PY - 2019 DA - 2019/08/09 SP - e46564 C1 - eLife 2019;8:e46564 DO - 10.7554/eLife.46564 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.46564 AB - The chromosomal replication origin region (ori) of characterised bacteria is dynamically positioned throughout the cell cycle. In slowly growing Escherichia coli, ori is maintained at mid-cell from birth until its replication, after which newly replicated sister oris move to opposite quarter positions. Here, we provide an explanation for ori positioning based on the self-organisation of the Structural Maintenance of Chromosomes complex, MukBEF, which forms dynamically positioned clusters on the chromosome. We propose that a non-trivial feedback between the self-organising gradient of MukBEF complexes and the oris leads to accurate ori positioning. We find excellent agreement with quantitative experimental measurements and confirm key predictions. Specifically, we show that oris exhibit biased motion towards MukBEF clusters, rather than mid-cell. Our findings suggest that MukBEF and oris act together as a self-organising system in chromosome organisation-segregation and introduces protein self-organisation as an important consideration for future studies of chromosome dynamics. KW - self-organisation KW - SMC KW - chromosome organisation KW - Turing patterning JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -