Genome architecture and global gene regulation in bacteria: making progress towards a unified model?

Data obtained with advanced imaging techniques, 3C and 5C chromosome conformation capture methods, bioinformatics and molecular genetics, together with insights from polymer physics and mechanobiology, are helping to refine our understanding of the spatiotemporal organization of the bacterial nucleoid and its gene expression programmes. The proposal that gene regulation represents one of the organizing principles of nucleoid architecture marks an important development in our understanding of bacterial cell biology