Abstract
Despite its fundamental importance for the propagation of all cellular life, very little is known about the molecular basis of chromosome segregation in archaea. This is a particularly intriguing issue in members of the genus Sulfolobus which encode homologs of a “bacterial-like” candidate segregation machinery, termed SegAB, related to the bacterial ParA-based systems, yet rely on a “eukaryotic-like” ESCRT machinery for cell division. While investigating the temporal dynamics of Sulfolobus chromosome architecture, we uncovered conformational changes at the candidate segregation locus. Loss of the Seg system results in altered nucleoid morphology and induction of a DNA damage response. Significantly, loss of the Seg system also leads to precocious assembly of the key cell division protein CdvA. Finally, we observe interactions between SegA and CdvA, indicating dual roles for the Seg system in effecting chromosome segregation and defining the positioning of the cell division apparatus.
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Data availability
The sequence reads for the 3C-Seq, RNA-Seq and ChIP-Seq data have been deposited in the Sequence Read Archive, BioProject PRJNA1272008; submissions SUB15364289 and SUB15720780. Source data will be provided with this paper. Strains are available on request from RYS. Source data are provided with this paper.
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Acknowledgements
S.D.B.’s lab is funded by NIH R35GM152171. This work was additionally funded by NIH 1R01GM135178, the College of Arts and Sciences, Indiana University and the College of Arts and Sciences, The Ohio State University. We are indebted to Veronica A. Bell for invaluable assistance with microscopy. We thank Buzz Baum for discussions prior to publication. We are also grateful to Mart Krupovic and Miguel Gomez Raya Vilanova for sharing protocols and advice for acetic acid-mediated arrest and release of S. islandicus.
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R.Y.S. and N.T. performed the baby machine synchronization, and N.T. performed the Hi-C experiments on this material. All other experiments were performed and analyzed by R.Y.S. S.D.B. assisted in experimental design, obtained funding and wrote the initial draft of the manuscript. All three authors contributed to the final text of the manuscript.
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Samson, R.Y., Takemata, N. & Bell, S.D. Coordination of chromosome segregation and cell division in the archaeon Sulfolobus acidocaldarius. Nat Commun (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67934-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67934-8
