Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 18, 2026

Fluorescence Live-cell Imaging of the Complete Vegetative Cell Cycle of the Slow-growing Social Bacterium Myxococcus xanthus
Published on: June 20, 2018
The choreographed dynamics of bacterial chromosomes
Zemer Gitai1, Martin Thanbichler, Lucy Shapiro
1Department of Developmental Biology, Beckman Center, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. zgitai@princeton.edu
Abstract:
Despite decades of study, the exquisite temporal and spatial organization of bacterial chromosomes has only recently been appreciated. The direct visualization of specific chromosomal loci has revealed that bacteria condense, move and position their chromosomes in a reproducible fashion. The realization that bacterial chromosomes are actively translocated through the cell suggests the existence of specific mechanisms that direct this process. Here, we review bacterial chromosome dynamics and our understanding of the mechanisms that direct and coordinate them.
Related Concept Videos
Forces Acting on Chromosomes
Microtubules and motor proteins exert two types of forces on...
Cytoskeletal Proteins in Bacteria
Coordination of Gene Expression Processes in Bacteria
Chromosome Structure
The centromere is a DNA sequence that links sister chromatids. This is also where kinetochores, protein complexes to which spindle microtubules attach, are constructed after the chromosome is replicated. The kinetochores allow the spindle microtubules to move the chromosomes within the cell during cell division.
Telomeres consist of non-coding repetitive nucleotide...
Replication in Prokaryotes
Many Proteins Work Together to Replicate the Chromosome
Replication is coordinated and carried out by a host of specialized...
Replication in Prokaryotes

