ArticleBiophysical journal2017
Brownian Ratchet Mechanism for Faithful Segregation of Low-Copy-Number Plasmids.
Article in Biophysical journal, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 48 papers.
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Who cites it
48 citing papers in PubMed, 80 citations in OpenAlex.
- Characterization of a novel phage-plasmid vB_EcoM_ED targeting multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli isolates.European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2026Article
- The kinetics and mobility of a ParA ATPase drive carboxysome distribution inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Programming DNA machines to move.Nature reviews. Chemistry · 2026Review
- Bacillus subtilis ParB C-terminal lysine residues are essential for dimerization and in vivo function, indicating their roles in DNA sliding.Nucleic acids research · 2026Article
- Chromosome segregation dynamics during the cell cycle of Staphylococcus aureus.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Brownian ratchet mechanisms for carboxysome positioning in bacteria.Current opinion in microbiology · 2025Review
- Mutational analysis of the F plasmid partitioning protein ParA reveals residues required for oligomerization and plasmid maintenance.Nucleic acids research · 2025Article
- Tuning the interaction of a ParA-type ATPase with its partner separates bacterial organelle positioning from partitioning.Research square · 2025Article
- Tuning the interaction of a ParA-type ATPase with its partner separates bacterial organelle positioning from partitioning.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Physical models of bacterial chromosomes.Molecular microbiology · 2025Review
- Connecting single-molecule and superresolution microscopies to cell biology through theoretical modeling.Biophysical journal · 2025Review
- Coordinating plasmid partition with bacterial chromosome segregation.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Plasmid partitioning driven by collective migration of ParA between nucleoid lobes.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Motility of an autonomous protein-based artificial motor that operates via a burnt-bridge principle.Nature communications · 2024Article
- DNA Segregation in Enterobacteria.EcoSal Plus · 2023Review
- Organization and replicon interactions within the highly segmented genome of Borrelia burgdorferi.PLoS genetics · 2023Article
- Kinetic principles of ParA2-ATP cycling guide dynamic subcellular localizations in Vibrio cholerae.Nucleic acids research · 2023Article
- The parABSm system is involved in megaplasmid partitioning and genome integrity maintenance in Thermus thermophilus.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2023Article
- Organization and replicon interactions within the highly segmented genome ofbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Polyploidy, regular patterning of genome copies, and unusual control of DNA partitioning in the Lyme disease spirochete.Nature communications · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Bacterial plasmids are extrachromosomal DNA that provides selective advantages for bacterial survival. Plasmid partitioning can be remarkably robust. For high-copy-number plasmids, diffusion ensures that both daughter cells inherit plasmids after cell division. In contrast, most low-copy-number plasmids need to be actively partitioned by a conserved tripartite ParA-type system. ParA is an ATPase that binds to chromosomal DNA; ParB is the stimulator of the ParA ATPase and specifically binds to the plasmid at a centromere-like site, parS. ParB stimulation of the ParA ATPase releases ParA from the bacterial chromosome, after which it takes a long time to reset its DNA-binding affinity. We previously demonstrated in vitro that the ParA system can exploit this biochemical asymmetry for directed cargo transport. Multiple ParA-ParB bonds can bridge a parS-coated cargo to a DNA carpet, and they can work collectively as a Brownian ratchet that directs persistent cargo movement with a ParA-depletion zone trailing behind. By extending this model, we suggest that a similar Brownian ratchet mechanism recapitulates the full range of actively segregated plasmid motilities observed in vivo. We demonstrate that plasmid motility is tuned as the replenishment rate of the ParA-depletion zone progressively increases relative to the cargo speed, evolving from diffusion to pole-to-pole oscillation, local excursions, and, finally, immobility. When the plasmid replicates, the daughters largely display motilities similar to that of their mother, except that when the single-focus progenitor is locally excursive, the daughter foci undergo directed segregation. We show that directed segregation maximizes the fidelity of plasmid partition. Given that local excursion and directed segregation are the most commonly observed modes of plasmid motility in vivo, we suggest that the operation of the ParA-type partition system has been shaped by evolution for high fidelity of plasmid segregation.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.