Interplay between the bacterial nucleoid protein H-NS and macromolecular crowding in compacting DNA

In this dissertation we discuss H-NS and its connection to nucleoid compaction and organization. Nucleoid formation involves a dramatic reduction in coil volume of the genomic DNA. Four factors are thought to influence coil volume: supercoiling, DNA charge neutralization, macromolecular crowding and DNA deformation by NAPs. This study focuses mainly on the latter two factors, and on their interplay. We investigate both direct and indirect...