In the circular Escherichia coli chromosome, two replisomes are assembled at the unique origin of replication and drive DNA synthesis in opposite directions until they meet in the terminus region across from the origin. Despite the difference in rates of the two replisomes, their arrival at the terminus is synchronized through a highly specialized system consisting of the terminator protein (Tus) bound to the termination sites (Ter). This synchronicity is mediated by the polarity of the Tus−Ter complex that stops replisomes from one direction (non-permissive face) but not the other (permissive face). Two oppositely oriented clusters of five Tus–Ters that each block one of the two replisomes create a “replication fork trap” for the first arriving replisome while waiting for the late arriving one. Despite extensive biochemical and structural studies, the molecular mechanism behind Tus−Ter polar arrest activity remained controversial. Moreover, none of the previous work provided answers for the long-standing discrepancy between the ability of Tus−Ter to permanently stop replisomes in vitro and its low efficiency in vivo. Here, I spearheaded a collaborative project that combined single-molecule DNA replication assays, X-ray crystallography and binding studies to provide a true molecular-level understanding of the underlying mechanism of Tus−Ter polar arrest activity. We showed that efficiency of Tus−Ter is determined by a head-to-head kinetic competition between rate of strand separation by the replisome and rate of rearrangement of Tus−Ter interactions during the melting of the first 6 base pairs of Ter. This rearrangement maintains Tus’s strong grip on the DNA and stops the advancing replisome from breaking into Tus−Ter central interactions, but only transiently. We further showed how this kinetic competition functions within the context of two mechanisms to impose permanent fork stoppage. The rate-dependent fork arrest activity of Tus−Ter explains its low efficiency in vivo and why contradictory in vitro results from previous studies have led to controversial elucidations of the mechanism. It also provides the first example where the intrinsic heterogeneity in rate of individual replisomes could have different biological outcomes in its communication with double-stranded DNA-binding protein barriers.

Durant le développement préimplantatoire, les défauts de ségrégation des chromosomes conduisent à l'héritage d'un nombre incorrect de chromosomes, connu sous le nom d'aneuploïdie, qui provoque l'infertilité. L’imagerie à intervalle du développement préimplantatoire est introduite pour sélectionner le meilleur embryon et des efforts sont en cours pour utiliser l'imagerie non invasive pour identifier les ovocytes euploïdes en métaphase-II comme prédicteur de la viabilité future de l'embryon. Il est déjà bien établi que les ovocytes de mammifères en métaphase-II subissent des mouvements cytoplasmiques stéréotypés qui peuvent être visualisés par imagerie non invasive à fond clair à intervalle, appelée « flux cytoplasmique ». Ici, nous avons émis l'hypothèse que le flux cytoplasmique pourrait être affecté par le statut de ploïdie de l'ovule et donc être un outil de sélection utile pour sélectionner les ovules euploïdes de manière non invasive. Nous avons développé des conditions pour générer des ovules euploïdes et aneuploïdes à partir du même bassin d'ovocytes sains. Nous avons ensuite utilisé la microscopie d'imagerie en temps réel DIC, permettant de visualiser et de mesurer le flux cytoplasmique sans manipulation de l'ovule. Les mouvements cytoplasmiques ont été liés au statut de ploïdie pour chaque ovule individuel par immunofluorescence. Nos résultats montrent qu'il n'y a pas de différence de flux cytoplasmique entre les ovules euploïdes et aneuploïdes. Nos données démontrent que l'état de la ploïdie n'a pas d'impact sur les mouvements cytoplasmiques, suggérant que l'utilisation d'une imagerie non invasive pour essayer de distinguer l'état de la ploïdie entre des ovocytes autrement sains sera difficile. / Chromosome segregation errors during early development lead to inheritance of incorrect number of chromosomes, known as aneuploidy, which causes infertility and birth defects. Time-lapse microscopy of preimplantation development is being widely introduced with the aim of selecting the best embryo and efforts to use non-invasive brightfield imaging to identify euploid oocytes at metaphase-II as a predictor of future embryo viability are underway. It is already well established that mammalian metaphase-II oocytes undergo stereotyped cytoplasmic movements that can be visualised by non-invasive brightfield timelapse imaging, termed “cytoplasmic flow”. Here, we hypothesised that this cytoplasmic flow might be affected by ploidy status of the egg and therefore be a useful selection tool to select euploid eggs non-invasively. To address this, we developed conditions to generate euploid and aneuploid eggs from the same pool of otherwise healthy oocytes. We then used DIC live-imaging microscopy, which allowed us to visualise and measure flow without any manipulation to the egg. Importantly, individual eggs were scored for their ploidy status by immunofluorescence, so that cytoplasmic movements could be related to ploidy on an egg-by-egg basis. Our results show that there is no difference in cytoplasmic flow between euploid and aneuploid eggs. Therefore, our data demonstrates that ploidy status does not impact biologically relevant stereotyped cytoplasmic movements, suggesting that using non-invasive imaging to try to distinguish ploidy status between otherwise healthy oocytes will be challenging.