ArticleScience advances2021
Polyphosphate drives bacterial heterochromatin formation.
Article in Science advances, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 48 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
48 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- Uncovering a previously unknown function of polyphosphate in polyadenylated RNA-induced amyloidogenesis of Hfq.The FEBS journal · 2026Article
- Nuclear speckle dynamics are controlled by polyphosphate inhibition of CLK proteins.Nucleic acids research · 2026Article
- Polyphosphate acts as an architectural regulator of carbon fixation and nucleoid structure in cyanobacteria.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Probing metazoan polyphosphate biology usingeLife · 2026Article
- Polyphosphate modulates the stress-responsive formation of functional RNA-protein condensates in bacteria and mammalian cells.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Decoding nucleic acid contributions to phase separation and ordering in biomolecular condensates.Nucleic acids research · 2026Article
- PolyP inhibits CobB deacetylase triggering a regulatory coupling to prevent DNA replication initiation.Nucleic acids research · 2026Article
- The chromosomal origin of replication as the basis for the spatio-temporal biology of bacteria.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Review
- BR-bodies facilitate adaptive responses and survival during copper stress in Caulobacter crescentus.The Journal of biological chemistry · 2025Article
- Inorganic Polyphosphate Modulates Chromosome Transmission Fidelity in the Fission YeastBiomolecules · 2025Article
- Article
- Article
- Article
- The Power Duo: How the Interplay Between Nucleoid-Associated Proteins and Small Noncoding RNAs Orchestrates the Cellular Regulatory Symphony.Molecular microbiology · 2025Review
- Polyphosphate: a cellular Swiss army knife.Current opinion in biotechnology · 2025Review
- Polyphosphate: The "Dark Matter" of Bacterial Chromatin Structure.Molecular microbiology · 2025Review
- Chromatin and gene regulation in archaea.Molecular microbiology · 2025Review
- Article
- Bacterial IF2's N-terminal IDR drives cold-induced phase separation and promotes fitness during cold stress.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Heterochromatin is most often associated with eukaryotic organisms. Yet, bacteria also contain areas with densely protein-occupied chromatin that appear to silence gene expression. One nucleoid-associated silencing factor is the conserved protein Hfq. Although seemingly nonspecific in its DNA binding properties, Hfq is strongly enriched at AT-rich DNA regions, characteristic of prophages and mobile genetic elements. Here, we demonstrate that polyphosphate (polyP), an ancient and highly conserved polyanion, is essential for the site-specific DNA binding properties of Hfq in bacteria. Absence of polyP markedly alters the DNA binding profile of Hfq, causes unsolicited prophage and transposon mobilization, and increases mutagenesis rates and DNA damage–induced cell death. In vitro reconstitution of the system revealed that Hfq and polyP interact with AT-rich DNA sequences and form phase-separated condensates, a process that is mediated by the intrinsically disordered C-terminal extensions of Hfq. We propose that polyP serves as a newly identified driver of heterochromatin formation in bacteria.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.