Capturing chromosome conformation in Crenarchaea

While there is a considerable body of knowledge regarding the molecular and structural biology and biochemistry of archaeal information processing machineries, far less is known about the nature of the substrate for these machineries-the archaeal nucleoid. In this article, we will describe recent advances in our understanding of the three-dimensional organization of the chromosomes of model organisms in the crenarchaeal phylum. To fit into cells, chromosomes must be folded. Here we describe how members of the Archaea effect this folding process and how chromosome architecture both influences and is influenced by gene expression.image