This image on the cover of the November issue of the Journal of Bacteriology prefaces a paper by Archit Gupta and Purnananda Guptasarma in the issue, showing that E. Coli cells advance into simulacrums of bacterial biofilms consisting of phase separated condensates of extracellular DNA, lipopolysaccharide and Nucleoid Associated Proteins such as the histone-like protein, HU. The work carries forward earlier discoveries published in two recent papers in the Journal of Biological Chemistry by the Guptasarma group showing that HU uses its DNA binding sites to bind to both extracellular DNA and sugar-phosphate moieties on lipopolysachharide, and also that HU phase separates with DNA in the bacterial chromosome and in the matrix of expelled extracellular DNA in biofilms..
 |
 |