SRP215947 PRJNA556011 GSE134665 Structural and biochemical analyses of Caulobacter crescentus ParB reveal the role of its N-terminal domain in chromosome segregation The tripartite ParA-ParB-parS complex ensures faithful chromosome segregation in the majority of bacterial species. ParB nucleates on the centromere-like parS site and spreads to neighboring DNA to form a network of protein-DNA complexes. This nucleoprotein network in turn interacts with ParA to partition the parS locus, hence the chromosome to each daughter cell. Here, we determine the co-crystal structure of the C-terminal domain truncated ParB-parS complex from Caulobacter crescentus, and show that its N-terminal domain is inherently flexible and adopts multiple different conformations. We propose that the flexibility of the N-terminal domain might facilitate the spreading of ParB on the chromosome. Next, using ChIP-seq we show that ParBs from different bacterial species exhibit variation in their intrinsic capability for spreading, and that the N-terminal domain rather than the C-terminal domain is the main determinant for the variation in spreading. Finally, we show that the C-terminal domain of Caulobacter ParB does not possess non-specific DNA-binding activity in vitro. Engineered ParB variants with enhanced non-specific DNA-binding activity condense DNA in vitro but do not spread further than a wild-type protein in vivo. Taken together, our results emphasize the central role of the N-terminal domain in ParB spreading and faithful chromosome segregation. Overall design: Chromatin-immunoprecipitation with deep sequencing experiments (ChIP-seq) were performed on exponential-growing Escherichia coli and Caulobacter crescentus. GSE134665