ParB proteins can bypass DNA-bound roadblocks via dimer-dimer recruitment.

The article presents a study which showed that partition protein B (ParB) from Bacillus subtilis can load onto DNA distantly of parS, as loaded ParB molecules themselves are found to be able to recruit additional ParB proteins from bulk. Topics include mechanism of ParB spreading using a controlled DNA stretching assay that allows in vitro visualization at the single-molecule level, CTP hydrolysis in ParB-ParB recruitment, and model of ParB spreading in presence of DNA-bound roadblocks.