Emerging views of genome organization in Archaea

Over the past decade, advances in methodologies for the determination of chromosome conformation have provided remarkable insight into the local and higher-order organization of bacterial and eukaryotic chromosomes. Locally folded domains are found in both bacterial and eukaryotic genomes, although they vary in size. Importantly, genomes of metazoans also possess higher-order organization into A- and B-type compartments, regions of transcriptionally active and inactive chromatin, respectively. Until recently, nothing was known about the organization of genomes of organisms in the third domain of life – the archaea. However, despite archaea possessing simple circular genomes that are morphologically reminiscent of those seen in many bacteria, a recent study of archaea of the genus Sulfolobus has revealed that it organizes its genome into large-scale domains. These domains further interact to form defined A- and B-type compartments. The interplay of transcription and localization of a novel structural maintenance of chromosomes (SMC) superfamily protein, termed coalescin, defines compartment identity. In this Review, we discuss the mechanistic and evolutionary implications of these findings.