The Role of Archaeal Chromatin in Transcription

Genomic organization impacts accessibility and movement of information processing systems along DNA. DNA-bound proteins dynamically dictate gene expression and provide regulatory potential to tune transcription rates to match ever-changing environmental conditions. Archaeal genomes are typically small, circular, gene dense, and organized either by histone proteins that are homologous to their eukaryotic counterparts, or small basic proteins that function analogously to bacterial nucleoid proteins. We review here how archaeal genomes are organized and how such organization impacts archaeal gene expression, focusing on conserved DNA-binding proteins within the clade and the factors that are known to impact transcription initiation and elongation within protein-bound genomes.