[Heterogeneous packing of the Escherichia coli chromosome and its decompaction in in vitro experiments]

The chromatin organization of E. coli cells, taken on various growth stages of the culture (active, stationary, grown with heightened density), displays different characters when examined by the Miller method. In the active phase of growth, the cell chromatin is released as threads and loops of DNA, threads of nucleosome-like particles and granules 25-38 nm in size. The chromatin from cells in the stationary phase of growth, grown in heightened density conditions, contains not only granules of average size 30 and 100 nm, but also larger conglomerates consisting of several 100 nm particles. The chromatin decompaction of cells grown under heightened density, in conditions of weak alkali medium and low salt buffer, was in general of two types: creation of diffusion cloud with no clear-cut outlines, and spherical structure of 1.5-2 microns in diameter with electron dense centre. In one chromosome both the types of chromatin decompaction can be found at the same time with regions of compact chromatin, which undoubtedly shows different functional activity of some regions of the chromosome.