Defining the gene products that play an essential role in an organism's functional repertoire is vital to understanding the system level organization of living cells. We used a genetic footprinting technique for a genome-wide assessment of genes required for robust aerobic growth of Escherichia coli in rich media. We identified 620 genes as essential and 3,126 genes as dispensable for growth under these conditions. Functional context analysis of these data allows individual functional assignments to be refined. Evolutionary context analysis demonstrates a significant tendency of essential E. coli genes to be preserved throughout the bacterial kingdom. Projection of these data over metabolic subsystems reveals topologic modules with essential and evolutionarily preserved enzymes with reduced capacity for error tolerance.Sequencing and comparative analysis of multiple diverse genomes is revolutionizing contemporary biology by providing a framework for interpreting and predicting the physiologic properties of an organism. A variety of emerging postgenomic techniques such as genome-wide expression profiling and monitoring of macromolecular complex formation can reveal the detailed molecular compositions of cells. New computational approaches to exploring the inherent organization of cellular networks, the mode and dynamics of interactions among cellular constituents, are in early stages of development (14,22,23). These techniques allow us to begin unraveling a major paradigm of cellular biology: how biological properties arise from the large number of components making up an individual cell.

Recent advances enabled by the Hi-C technique have unraveled many principles of chromosomal folding that were subsequently linked to disease and gene regulation. In particular, Hi-C revealed that chromosomes of animals are organized into topologically associating domains (TADs), evolutionary conserved compact chromatin domains that influence gene expression. Mechanisms that underlie partitioning of the genome into TADs remain poorly understood. To explore principles of TAD folding in Drosophila melanogaster, we performed Hi-C and poly(A) + RNA-seq in four cell lines of various origins (S2, Kc167, DmBG3-c2, and OSC). Contrary to previous studies, we find that regions between TADs (i.e., the inter-TADs and TAD boundaries) in Drosophila are only weakly enriched with the insulator protein dCTCF, while another insulator protein Su(Hw) is preferentially present within TADs. However, Drosophila inter-TADs harbor active chromatin and constitutively transcribed (housekeeping) genes. Accordingly, we find that binding of insulator proteins dCTCF and Su(Hw) predicts TAD boundaries much worse than active chromatin marks do. Interestingly, inter-TADs correspond to decompacted inter-bands of polytene chromosomes, whereas TADs mostly correspond to densely packed bands. Collectively, our results suggest that TADs are condensed chromatin domains depleted in active chromatin marks, separated by regions of active chromatin. We propose the mechanism of TAD self-assembly based on the ability of nucleosomes from inactive chromatin to aggregate, and lack of this ability in acetylated nucleosomal arrays. Finally, we test this hypothesis by polymer simulations and find that TAD partitioning may be explained by different modes of inter-nucleosomal interactions for active and inactive chromatin.

Using comparative analysis of genes, operons, and regulatory elements, we describe the cobalamin (vitamin B 12 ) biosynthetic pathway in available prokaryotic genomes. Here we found a highly conserved RNA secondary structure, the regulatory B12 element, which is widely distributed in the upstream regions of cobalamin biosynthetic/transport genes in eubacteria. In addition, the binding signal (CBL-box) for a hypothetical B 12 regulator was identified in some archaea. A search for B12 elements and CBL-boxes and positional analysis identified a large number of new candidate B 12 -regulated genes in various prokaryotes. Among newly assigned functions associated with the cobalamin biosynthesis, there are several new types of cobalt transporters, ChlI and ChlD subunits of the CobN-dependent cobaltochelatase complex, cobalt reductase BluB, adenosyltransferase PduO, several new proteins linked to the lower ligand assembly pathway, L-threonine kinase PduX, and a large number of other hypothetical proteins. Most missing genes detected within the cobalamin biosynthetic pathways of various bacteria were identified as nonorthologous substitutes. The variable parts of the cobalamin metabolism appear to be the cobalt transport and insertion, the CobG/CbiG-and CobF/CbiD-catalyzed reactions, and the lower ligand synthesis pathway. The most interesting result of analysis of B12 elements is that B 12 -independent isozymes of the methionine synthase and ribonucleotide reductase are regulated by B12 elements in bacteria that have both B 12 -dependent and B 12 -independent isozymes. Moreover, B 12 regulons of various bacteria are thought to include enzymes from known B 12 -dependent or alternative pathways. Cobalamin (CBL),1 along with chlorophyll, heme, siroheme, and coenzyme F 430 , constitute a class of the most structurally complex cofactors synthesized by bacteria. The distinctive feature of these cofactors is their tetrapyrrole-derived framework with a centrally chelated metal ion (cobalt, magnesium, iron, or nickel). Methylcobalamin and Ado-CBL, two derivatives of vitamin B 12 (cyanocobalamin) with different upper axial ligands, are essential cofactors for several important enzymes that catalyze a variety of transmethylation and rearrangement reactions. Among the most prominent vitamin B 12 -dependent enzymes in bacteria and archaea are the methionine synthase isozyme MetH from enteric bacteria; the ribonucleotide reductase isozyme NrdJ from deeply rooted eubacteria and archaea; diol dehydratases and ethanolamine ammonia lyase from enteric bacteria involved in anaerobic glycerol, 1,2-propanediol, and ethanolamine fermentation; glutamate and methylmalonyl-CoA mutases from clostridia and streptomycetes; and various CBL-dependent methyltransferases from methane-producing archaea (1-5).Most prokaryotic organisms as well as animals (including humans) and protists have enzymes that require CBL as cofactor, whereas plants and fungi are thought not to use it. Among the CBL-utilizing organisms, only some bacterial and archaeal species ...