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Bacillus subtilis chromosome organization oscillates between two distinct patterns

Significance In bacteria, faithful and efficient DNA segregation is intimately linked to the spatial organization of the chromosome. Two distinct organization patterns have been described for bacterial chromosomes (ori-ter and left-ori-right) that appear to arise from distinct segregation mechanisms. Here, we show that the Bacillus subtilis chromosome oscillates between them during a replication–segregation cycle. Our data further suggest that the highly conserved condensin complex and the parABS partitioning system function as the core components that underlie these alternating patterns. We propose that this oscillatory cycle enhances the efficiency of DNA replication and sister chromosome segregation and provides a unifying model for the diverse patterns of chromosome organization observed in bacteria. Bacterial chromosomes have been found to possess one of two distinct patterns of spatial organization. In the first, called “ori-ter” and exemplified by Caulobacter crescentus, the chromosome arms lie side-by-side, with the replication origin and terminus at opposite cell poles. In the second, observed in slow-growing Escherichia coli (“left-ori-right”), the two chromosome arms reside in separate cell halves, on either side of a centrally located origin. These two patterns, rotated 90° relative to each other, appear to result from different segregation mechanisms. Here, we show that the Bacillus subtilis chromosome alternates between them. For most of the cell cycle, newly replicated origins are maintained at opposite poles with chromosome arms adjacent to each other, in an ori-ter configuration. Shortly after replication initiation, the duplicated origins move as a unit to midcell and the two unreplicated arms resolve into opposite cell halves, generating a left-ori-right pattern. The origins are then actively segregated toward opposite poles, resetting the cycle. Our data suggest that the condensin complex and the parABS partitioning system are the principal driving forces underlying this oscillatory cycle. We propose that the distinct organization patterns observed for bacterial chromosomes reflect a common organization–segregation mechanism, and that simple modifications to it underlie the unique patterns observed in different species.