Dense packaging of genomic DNA is crucial for organismal survival, as DNA length always far exceeds the dimensions of the cells that contain it. Organisms, therefore, use sophisticated machineries to package their genomes. These systems range across kingdoms from a single ultra-powerful rotary motor that spools the DNA into a bacteriophage head, to hundreds of thousands of relatively weak molecular motors that coordinate the compaction of mitotic chromosomes in eukaryotic cells. Recent technological advances, such as DNA proximity-based sequencing approaches, polymer modelling and in vitro reconstitution of DNA loop extrusion, have shed light on the biological mechanisms driving DNA organization in different systems. Here, we discuss DNA packaging in bacteriophage, bacteria and eukaryotic cells, which, despite their extreme variation in size, structure and genomic content, all rely on the action of molecular motors to package their genomes.

基因组 DNA 的密集包装对于生物体的生存至关重要，因为 DNA 长度总是远远超过包含它的细胞的尺寸。因此，生物体使用复杂的机器来包装它们的基因组。这些系统的范围从将 DNA 缠绕到噬菌体头部的单个超强旋转马达，到协调真核细胞中有丝分裂染色体压缩的数十万个相对较弱的分子马达。最近的技术进步，如基于 DNA 邻近的测序方法、聚合物建模和 DNA 环挤出的体外重建，揭示了在不同系统中驱动 DNA 组织的生物学机制。在这里，我们讨论了噬菌体、细菌和真核细胞中的 DNA 包装，尽管它们在大小、结构和基因组内容方面存在极端差异，但它们都依赖于分子马达的作用来包装其基因组。