Multiscale structure of the Escherichia coli genome

The Escherichia coli bacterium is a major focus of research in biology. But the higher-order organization of its genome had yet to be investigated using techniques such as chromosome conformation capture (3C/Hi-C). In a paper published in the journal Cell, scientists from the Institut Pasteur revealed using this approach the existence of several levels of chromosomal folding linked to known proteins, including condensin and the histon-like HU protein, whose roles in maintaining the structure of this genome were until now unclear.