We study the machineries that duplicate, express, organize and segregate the genome. To ensure viability, all cells must perform these processes in a timely and accurate manner. We exploit a multi-disciplinary range of cell and molecular biological, biochemical, genetic and structural approaches to determine the mechanistic and regulatory parameters that govern these essential cellular processes. Our work is driven by the evolutionary conservation of these fundamental machineries, allowing us to exploit archaea of the genus Sulfolobus as simple and robust model organisms.

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Relevant Publications

C. Badel and S.D. Bell (2024) “Chromosome architecture in an archaeal species naturally lacking structural maintenance of chromosomes proteins. Nature Microbiology, 9,263-273. 

C. Badel, R.Y. Samson and S.D. Bell (2022) “The influence of chromosome organization on genome evolution in Sulfolobus archaea” Nature Microbiology, 7, 820-830

M.D. Greci, J Dooher and S.D Bell (2022) “The combined DNA and RNA synthetic capabilities of archaeal DNA primase facilitate primer hand-off to the replicative DNA polymerase” Nature Communications, 13, 433

N. Takemata and S.D. Bell (2021) “Multi-scale architecture of archaeal chromosomes” Molecular Cell, 81, 473-487

N. Takemata*, R. Samson* and S.D. Bell (2019) “Physical and functional compartmentalization of archaeal chromosomes”. Cell, 179, 165-179