Bactofilin-mediated organization of the ParABS chromosome segregation system in Myxococcus xanthus

In bacteria, homologs of actin, tubulin, and intermediate filament proteins often act in concert with bacteria-specific scaffolding proteins to ensure the proper arrangement of cellular components. Among the bacteria-specific factors are the bactofilins, a widespread family of polymer-forming proteins whose biology is poorly investigated. Here, we study the three bactofilins BacNOP in the rod-shaped bacterium Myxococcus xanthus. We show that BacNOP co-assemble into elongated scaffolds that restrain the ParABS chromosome segregation machinery to the subpolar regions of the cell. The centromere (parS)-binding protein ParB associates with the pole-distal ends of these structures, whereas the DNA partitioning ATPase ParA binds along their entire length, using the newly identified protein PadC (MXAN_4634) as an adapter. The integrity of these complexes is critical for proper nucleoid morphology and chromosome segregation. BacNOP thus mediate a previously unknown mechanism of subcellular organization that recruits proteins to defined sites within the cytoplasm, far off the cell poles.