Plasmid segregation: spatial awareness at the molecular level

Plasmid segregation: spatial awareness at the molecular level

In bacteria, low-copy number plasmids ensure their stable inheritance by partition loci (par), which actively distribute plasmid replicates to each side of the cell division plane. Using time-lapse fluorescence microscopic tracking of segregating plasmid molecules, a new study provides novel insight into the workings of the par system from Escherichia coli plasmid R1. Despite its relative simpl...

Spatial Segregation in Demography: A Short Review

  Abstract. Spatial has always been an inherent component of demography, and demographic processes are inherently spatiotemporal. Recognizing the importance of spatial in general and spatial segregation in particular in demographic analysis has created new positions in demography and its conceptual and analytical frameworks. The notion of spatial segregation refers to the distribution of social...

Plasmid segregation and accumulation

The segregation of plasmids in a bacterial population is investigated. Hereby, a dynamical model is formulated in terms of a size-structured population using a hyperbolic partial differential equation incorporating non-local terms (the fragmentation equation). For a large class of parameter functions this PDE can be re-written as an infinite system of ordinary differential equations for the mom...

Plasmid segregation mechanisms.

Bacterial plasmids encode partitioning (par) loci that ensure ordered plasmid segregation prior to cell division. par loci come in two types: those that encode actin-like ATPases and those that encode deviant Walker-type ATPases. ParM, the actin-like ATPase of plasmid R1, forms dynamic filaments that segregate plasmids paired at mid-cell to daughter cells. Like microtubules, ParM filaments exhi...

Ferroelectricity at molecular level