Abstract Structural Maintenance of Chromosomes (SMC) complexes use a proteinaceous ring-shaped architecture to organise chromosomes, thereby facilitating chromosome segregation. They utilise cycles of ATP binding and hydrolysis to transport themselves rapidly with respect to DNA, a process requiring protein conformational changes and multiple DNA contacts. We have analysed changes in the architecture of the Escherichia coli SMC complex, MukBEF, as a function of nucleotide binding to MukB and subsequent ATP hydrolysis. This builds upon previous work showing that MukF kleisin directs formation of a MukBEF tripartite ring as a consequence of functional interactions between the C- and N-terminal domains of MukF with the MukB head and neck, respectively (Zawadzka et al., 2018). Using both model truncated substrates and complexes containing full length MukB, we now demonstrate formation of MukBEF ‘dimers of dimers’, dependent on MukF dimerization, MukB head-engagement and MukE, which plays an essential role in organizing MukBEF complexes.

Dynamic architecture of the Escherichia coli Structural Maintenance of Chromosomes (SMC) complex, MukBEF