Modeling supercoiled DNA interacting with an anchored cluster of proteins: towards a quantitative estimation of chromosomal DNA supercoiling Auteur(s): Walter J.-C., Lepage Thibaut, Dorignac J., Geniet F., Parmeggiani A., Palmeri J., Bouet Jean-Yves, Junier Ivan (Document sans référence bibliographique) 2020-04-07Texte intégral en Openaccess : Ref HAL: hal-02990631_v1 Ref Arxiv: 2002.00111 Ref. & Cit.: NASA ADS Exporter : BibTex | endNote Résumé: We investigate the measurement of DNA supercoiling density ($\sigma$) along chromosomes using interaction frequencies between DNA and DNA-anchored clusters of proteins. Specifically, we show how the physics of DNA supercoiling leads, in bacteria, to the quantitative modeling of binding properties of ParB proteins around their centromere-like site, {\it parS}. Using this framework, we provide an upper bound for $\sigma$ in the {\it Escherichia coli} chromosome, consistent with plasmid values, and offer a proof of concept for a high accuracy measurement. To reach these conclusions, we revisit the problem of the formation of ParB clusters. We predict, in particular, that they result from a non-equilibrium, stationary balance between an influx of produced proteins and an outflux of excess proteins, i.e., they behave like liquid-like protein condensates with unconventional leaky'' boundaries.