proper segregation of the genetic material during cell division relies on the organization of replicated dna molecules into compact and individualized sister chromosomes . in eukaryotes , condensation and resolution of chromatin into morphologically distinct chromatids occurs early in mitosis and depends on the interplay of nucleosomes , dna topoisomerase ii and structural maintenance of chromosomes ( smc ) protein complexes such as condensin and cohesin ( houlard et  al . , 2015 , are sequentially partitioned to opposite halves of the cell in line with their duplication by the two replication forks . resolution of bacterial chromosomes is thus an ordered process , which initiates near the replication origin and concludes with the separation of the replication terminus region . prokaryotic smc complexes , called smc / scpab and mukbef , are enriched in the vicinity of the replication origin on the bacterial chromosome ( badrinarayanan et  al . , 2012 , danilova et  al . , 2007 , gruber and errington , 2009 , minnen et  al . , 2011 , , 2009 , wilhelm et  al . , 2015 ) . in rapidly growing cells of bacillus subtilis , inactivation of smc / scpab is lethal due to a severe block in replication origin separation and nucleoid partitioning ( britton et  al . , 1998 , gruber et  al . , 2002 , moriya et  al . , 1998 , soppa et  al . , 2002 , a 50-nm long intramolecular coiled - coil constitutes the central part of smc proteins , which connects a  hinge , 2002 , hirano and hirano , 2002 , melby et  al . , 1998 ) . in bacteria , homotypic interaction of two smc proteins at their hinge supports the alignment of the two smc coiled coils to produce a highly elongated rod - shaped smc dimer ( soh et  al . , 2015 ) . at the hinge - distal end of the smc rod a single subunit of the kleisin family of proteins ( named scpa in bacteria ) binds to the smc dimer via two separate interfaces ( brmann et  al . , 2013 , gruber et  al . , 2003 , haering et  al . , 2002 , 2003 ) . a helical bundle is formed by scpa s n - terminal domain and the  neck  coiled coil of one smc subunit ( brmann et  al . , 2013 , scpa s c - terminal winged - helix domain attaches to the  cap  of the head in the other smc subunit ( brmann et  al . , 2013 , haering et  al . , 2004 ) . asymmetric tripartite rings made up of one scpa and two smc proteins are thus formed . like its eukaryotic descendants , smc / scpab entraps chromosomal dna molecules within the confines of its smc / kleisin ring ( cuylen et  al . , 2011 , dna entrapment depends on the scpb subunit , which forms dimers and associates with a central segment of scpa , as well as on atp hydrolysis by the smc complex ( brmann et  al . , 2013 , these smc protein clusters are generally positioned in the vicinity of a copy of the replication origin in b.  subtilis and streptococcus pneumoniae ( graumann et  al . , 1998 , gruber and errington , 2009 , kleine borgmann et  al . targeting of smc / scpab to the replication origin region and formation of smc foci relies on parb protein and pars sites . parb binds to short palindromic pars sequences , the six most prominent of which are scattered within a 350 kb region ( < 10% of the genome ) surrounding the replication origin in b.  subtilis . in several bacteria , the replicating chromosome displays a distinctive  longitudinal  organization within the cell ( le et  al . vallet - gely and boccard , 2013 , wang et  al . , 2015 ) : the newly replicated origins are generally found at the outer edges of the elongating chromosome , while other loci on the nascent chromosome are linearly arranged between the replication origin and the more centrally located terminus . the smc / scpab complex as well as parb protein and pars sites are essential for establishing this longitudinal organization of bacterial chromosomes ( le et  al . , 2013 , , 2015 , umbarger et  al . , 2011 , wang et  al . , 2015 ) . how the loading of smc / scpab by parb / pars at few genomic positions governs global chromosome organization , however , is unclear ( brmann and gruber , 2015 ) . the smc head domains share a common fold with nucleotide binding domains ( nbd ) found in abc transporters . these domains undergo cycles of engagement and disengagement driven by atp binding and atp hydrolysis . in smc / scpab , the smc atpase controls dna binding to the distant hinge domain ( hirano and hirano , 2006 , soh et  al . , 2015 ) . head engagement appears to promote the dissolution of the smc coiled coil rod and thereby exposes an otherwise occluded binding site for dna at the smc hinge ( soh et  al . , 2015 ) . if , and how , such a potential atp - driven conformational transition might be relevant for the parb - dependent recruitment of smc / scpab toward the replication origin region of the bacterial chromosome is unclear . in yeast , atp hydrolysis by cohesin has been implicated in its chromosomal relocation from sites occupied by the loading complex . however , the underlying molecular mechanisms remain elusive ( hu et  al . , 2011 ) . here , we show that the smc atpase cycle controls the dynamic association of smc / scpab with the bacterial chromosome . it determines the initial targeting of smc / scpab to its chromosomal loading sites and subsequent re - distribution into flanking dna . smc head engagement is crucial for the recognition of the parb / pars loading platform . we find that smc head engagement is remarkably inefficient in smc / scpab , due to the inhibitory action of smc hinge and smc rod , which is partially relieved by scpab . a head - proximal region of the smc coiled coil is critical for targeting to parb / pars . an smc mutant defective in atp hydrolysis is highly enriched at pars sites but fails to localize to other parts of the chromosome , including the neighboring replication origin and distant chromosomal arm loci . smc appears to be released from loading sites to relocate along dna to other parts of the chromosome in a manner that requires at least one round of atp hydrolysis . overall , our results demonstrate that engagement and disengagement of smc heads define two distinct modes of chromosome association by smc / scpab . furthermore , they support the intriguing notion that movement of smc / scpab along chromosome dna is a critical aspect of its activity , which might be related to dna loop extrusion by smc . to investigate a potential role of the smc atp hydrolysis cycle in the localization of smc / scpab complexes within the bacterial cell and on the bacterial chromosome , we made use of well - characterized , single amino - acid substitutions in the smc head domain , which specifically block atp binding ( k37i or d1117a ) or atp - dependent head engagement ( s1090r ) , alleviate a proposed stimulatory effect of dna on atp hydrolysis ( r57a ) , or strongly reduce smc atp hydrolysis ( e1118q ; or eq for short ) ( figure  1a ) ( hirano et  al . , 2001 , hirano and hirano , 2004 , hirano and hirano , 2006 , lammens et  al . these mutant proteins , with the exception of smc(r57a ) , fail to support growth of b.  subtilis on rich medium indicating that the mutations render the smc protein non - functional ( figure  s1a ) ( gruber et  al . , 2014 ) . all non - functional smc proteins , however , are expressed to normal levels as judged by immunoblotting using an -smc antiserum ( figure  1b ) and efficiently bind to the kleisin subunit scpa ( brmann et  al . , 2013 , wilhelm et  al . , 2015 ) . the smc alleles were then tagged at their c terminus with a monomeric version of gfp and integrated into the endogenous locus by allelic replacement . cells were analyzed by fluorescence imaging on minimal medium , which supports near normal growth of smc mutant strains . wild - type smc - gfp protein formed approximately one gfp focus per m cell length ( figures 1c and s1h ) ( graumann et  al . , 1998 , gruber and errington , 2009 , sullivan et  al . , 2009 ) . the cellular localization of the r57a mutant protein was indistinguishable from wild - type smc . in contrast , k37i , d1117a , and s1090r mutant proteins failed to form any discernible structures in fluorescence images being indicative of a dispersed cellular localization ( mascarenhas et  al . , 2005 ) . crucially , the smc(eq ) protein produced bright gfp foci , which on average occurred slightly less frequently than in wild - type cells ( figures 1c and s1h ) . these observations demonstrate the involvement of the smc atpase activity in the sub - cellular organization of smc complexes and indicate that smc is able to localize within the cell when its atp hydrolysis activity is reduced but not when atp binding or smc head engagement is blocked . next , we used untagged alleles of all atpase mutants to examine their chromosomal distribution in b.  subtilis by chromatin immunoprecipitation ( chip ) with an antiserum raised against the smc protein . qpcr with primer pairs specific for selected regions of the chromosome was performed to measure the co - purification of chromosomal dna with smc . as predicted from their inability to form gfp foci in the cell , atp binding and head engagement mutants resulted in little dna co - purification similar to the smc control being consistent with the notion that atp binding and engagement mutants fail to localize to the chromosome ( figure  1d ) . wild - type smc produced highly significant chip enrichment of origin proximal dna ( pars-356 , pars-359 , and dnaa ) as observed before with tagged alleles of smc ( gruber and errington , 2009 ) . intriguingly , the smc(eq ) protein showed on the one hand markedly stronger localization to pars dna than wild - type smc and on the other hand quite low enrichment at the juxtaposed dnaa locus . clearly , smc(eq ) protein is able to efficiently target specific regions of the chromosome . however , wild - type distribution of smc on the bacterial chromosome  including its prominent localization to  the replication origin  requires hydrolysis of atp by smc . smc(r57a ) showed a chip - qpcr pattern indistinguishable from wild - type smc indicating that cellular atp hydrolysis might be ( if at all ) only mildly affected by this amino - acid substitution in b.  subtilis . to get a global view of the chromosomal distribution of smc and smc(eq ) proteins , we then analyzed chip input and eluate fractions by next - generation sequencing . individual sequence reads were mapped to 1 kb sliding windows spaced at 100-bp intervals ( figure  2a ) or to 5 kb bins ( figure  2c ) . in order to normalize for the copy number differences between origin - proximal and -distal loci caused by ongoing dna replication , the ratio of the normalized number of reads in input and eluate fractions was calculated for each window . the resulting chip sequencing ( chip - seq ) profile for the smc(eq ) sample showed striking peaks that are overlapping with several pars sites on the chromosome ( figure  2a ) . the profile of the wild - type sample is markedly different from the smc(eq ) profile ( figure  2a ) ( gruber and errington , 2009 ) . its peaks at pars sites are less pronounced . instead , other more prominent peaks are present at and near the replication origin ( oric ) and generally more signal was detected all along the chromosome arms . largely similar chip - seq results were obtained with an antiserum raised against the scpb subunit ( figures s2 and 7a ; discussed below ) , indicating that the observed enrichments are not caused by antibody artifacts and suggesting that substantial fractions of smc and scpb co - localize on the chromosome , presumably by forming smc / scpab holo - complexes ( kleine borgmann et  al . , 2013 ) . chip - qpcr experiments using several primer pairs for chromosomal arm sites ( figure  s2d ) confirmed that smc ( but not smc(eq ) ) was significantly enriched at several positions on the two chromosome arms with levels of enrichment inversely correlating with distance from the replication origin . together , these results confirm the specific localization of the smc(eq ) protein to pars sites and strongly suggest that smc head engagement is essential for smc / scpab recruitment to the chromosome . however , a full cycle of atp hydrolysis appears to be involved in the localization of smc / scpab to other chromosomal sites  such as the replication origin and the chromosome arms ( figure  2a ) . furthermore , we found that the high levels of enrichment of smc and smc(eq ) at pars-359 are fully dependent on the presence of parb protein ( figure  3a ) . to compare the distribution of  smc and parb proteins near pars sites , we next performed chip - seq analysis using an antiserum against the parb protein . chip - seq peaks of parb and smc(eq ) ( but not smc ) proteins at pars sites are very similar in terms of positioning and shape , strongly indicating that the two proteins are closely co - localized on chromosomal dna ( figures 2a2c and 2e ) . in the absence of scpa or scpb , the smc protein is non - functional and smc - gfp fails to form foci in  vivo ( lindow et  al . we observed that the chromosomal localization of wild - type smc measured by chip - qpcr is strongly reduced when scpa or scpb is deleted ( figure  3b ) . poor localization was also observed in smc(eq ) cells in the absence of scpa or scpb . we thus conclude that atp - dependent engagement of smc heads as well as scpa and scpb proteins are crucial for efficient localization of smc to parb / pars on the chromosome . apparently , a particular conformation of smc / scpab recognizes parb / pars nucleoprotein structures . next , we investigated the role of the smc hinge domain in the localization of smc / scpab to the bacterial chromosome . we made use of a previously characterized mutation of four highly conserved glycine residues to alanine at the bs smc hinge - hinge interface ( designated as  mh  for mutant hinge ) to block formation of stable dimers at the smc hinge domain ( hirano and hirano , 2002 ) ( figures s3c and s3d ) . the chip - qpcr enrichment of smc(mh ) was clearly reduced at pars-359 as well as dnaa ( figure  3c ) . dimerization of smc at the hinge thus seems to be important for localization of wild - type smc / scpab to the chromosome . this is consistent with the notion that smc / scpab associates with the chromosome by entrapping the chromosomal dna double helix within its smc / kleisin ring ( wilhelm et  al . , 2015 ) . in stark contrast , however , the enrichment of smc(mh - eq ) protein at pars-359 ( but not at dnaa ) was strongly enhanced ( 4-fold ) compared to smc(eq ) ( figure  3c ) . hinge dimerization has strikingly antagonistic effects on the association of smc and smc(eq ) with the chromosome . remarkably , scpa and scpb are dispensable for targeting of smc(mh - eq ) to the chromosome ( figures 3c and s3h ) , while they are essential for wild - type smc and smc(eq ) to localize to the chromosome ( figure  3b ) . a plausible explanation for these striking observations is that the scpab sub - complex counteracts an inhibitory function of hinge dimerization on chromosomal targeting of smc . to ensure that these surprising findings are not caused by artifacts in the chromatin immunoprecipitation procedure , we have analyzed a set of smc mutants by live - cell imaging of fluorescently labeled smc proteins ( figure  3d ) . as predicted from the chip experiments , smc(eq)-gfp failed to form chromosomal foci when scpa is deleted , while smc(mh - eq)-gfp produced bright foci irrespective of the presence and absence of scpa . together , these findings corroborate the view that smc complexes associate with the bacterial chromosome in two fundamentally distinct manners , which are defined by the state of the smc atpase . how might the scpab sub - complex and dimerization at the smc  hinge control targeting of smc to chromosomal pars sites in antagonistic ways ? conceivably , scpab and the smc hinge might positively and negatively influence the engagement of smc head domains , respectively , and thereby regulate the recruitment of smc / scpab to pars . if so , then the levels of head engagement should correlate with the efficiency of chromosomal targeting . to address this , we made use of the efficient chemical cross - linking of closely juxtaposed pairs of cysteines by a thiol - specific bis - maleimide compound ( bmoe ) in b.  subtilis ( brmann et  al . based on the crystal structure of the pyrococcus furiosus smc(eq ) head  dimer in the presence of atp ( lammens et  al . , 2004 ) , we engineered a cysteine residue into the bottom surface of the bs smc head ( k1151c ) , so that it is located in close proximity to its pair mate at the 2-fold symmetry axis of the dimer ( figure  4a ) . in order to be able to precisely quantitate the levels of cross - linking , we fused the cysteine bearing smc gene at its c terminus with a halotag thus allowing in - gel fluorescence detection of smc . in addition , the four endogenous cysteines in smc were replaced by serine residues to reduce the propensity for any off - target cross - linking ( hirano and hirano , 2006 ) . the corresponding smc allele supports growth on nutrient rich medium , implying that it is functional ( figure  s4a ) . cross - linking of k1151c in otherwise wild - type smc was barely detectable ( < 4% ) , while the atp hydrolysis mutant smc produced a low but substantial fraction ( 14% ) of cross - linked smc dimers ( figure  4b ) . intriguingly , k1151c cross - linking was undetectable in smc(mh ) but very pronounced in smc(mh - eq ) . the latter is cross - linked with an efficiency comparable to those previously observed for other smc - smc , smc - scpa , and dnan - dnan interfaces , which strongly suggests that the k1151c residue is a good reporter for head - head association ( brmann et  al . , 2013 , soh et  al . , 2015 , wilhelm et  al . , 2015 ) . the low levels of cross - linking observed with wild - type smc and smc(eq ) are therefore in most likelihood due to poor efficiency of head engagement . deletion of scpa or scpb decreased the cross - linking of k1151c in smc and smc(eq ) protein even further ( figures 4b and s4b ) being consistent with the notion that scpab might stimulate the targeting of smc(eq ) to the chromosome ( figures 3b and s3h)at least partly  by promoting head engagement ( brmann et  al . smc head engagement must be a transient or rare phenomenon since it is barely detectable by cross - linking in wild - type smc / scpab ( figure  4b ) . the maintenance of its association with the chromosome is thus very likely independent from continuous engagement of head domains . smc head engagement , however , must be crucial during the establishment of chromosome association , because mutants defective in head engagement are unable to bind to the chromosome altogether . a stable association with the chromosome is likely created via the entrapment of chromosomal dna within the smc / scpab ring , a process that we have recently shown to be dependent on atp hydrolysis ( wilhelm et  al . , 2015 ) . we thus propose that smc / scpab displays two distinct modes of binding to the chromosome . the first one , designated as pre - hydrolysis mode , occurring mostly or exclusively at pars sites presumably via a physical interaction with the chromosome , has a strict requirement for smc head engagement . the second one , generated by transient head engagement and subsequent atp hydrolysis , designated as post - hydrolysis mode , features a much more dispersed distribution on the bacterial chromosome and likely involves the entrapment of one or more dna double helices within the smc / scpab ring . the levels of head engagement in smc , smc(eq ) , and smc(mh - eq ) correlate well with their efficiency of targeting to pars on the chromosome ( figures 3c and 4b ) . however , when scpa is deleted , both smc(eq ) and smc(mh - eq ) display similarly low levels of head cross - linking , whereas smc(mh - eq ) but not smc(eq ) exhibits strong enrichment at pars on the chromosome ( figures 3c and 4b ) . we conclude that hinge dimerization must have additional effects on smc(eq ) , through which it restricts chromosomal targeting , and smc head engagement  albeit being essential  is not sufficient for targeting of smc / scpab to pars sites . smc dimers form straight rods via the close juxtapositioning of the smc coiled coils ( soh et  al . , 2015 ) . upon smc head engagement and dna binding , however , they have been proposed to undergo an extensive conformational change to a more open , possibly ring - like configuration in  vitro ( soh et  al . , 2015 ) . conceivably , this structural transition might also regulate the binding of smc / scpab to parb / pars . if this were the case , then any smc mutant that efficiently targets to pars might harbor unstable smc rods . to investigate this , we employed in  vivo cross - linking of a cysteine residue ( a715c ) located at the hinge - proximal interface between the two smc coiled coils as an indicator for the formation of smc rods ( figure  4c ) ( soh et  al . , 2015 ) . as reported previously , 35% of wild - type smc(a715c ) proteins were cross - linked into covalent dimers by bmoe ( figure  4c ) . the mutant hinge strongly decreased the fraction of smc dimers displaying coiled coil rods , irrespective of the presence or absence of scpa protein ( figure  4c ) . similarly , the e1118q mutation lead to a significant reduction in the fraction of smc dimers with rod - shaped coiled coils providing direct evidence that the atpase cycle affects the architecture of the smc coiled coils near the smc hinge in  vivo . crucially , the partial dissolution of smc(eq ) rods was lost when the scpa gene was deleted , whereas the more pronounced opening of the coiled coils in smc(mh , eq ) was unaffected by scpa . the scpa subunit thus facilitates the opening of the smc rod ( figures 4b and 4c ) . altogether , these data strongly support the notion that dimerization at the smc hinge promotes smc rod formation , which in turn opposes head engagement . scpa is required to antagonize rod - stabilization exerted by the smc hinge and consistent with this notion it becomes dispensable for rod opening ( and chromosomal targeting ) in the absence of a functional hinge . hence , a combination of two interrelated structural features seems to be responsible for the targeting of smc / scpab to pars sites on the chromosome : ( 1 ) engagement of smc head domains , and ( 2 ) dissolution of the smc rod . both features appear to be rare or short - lived in wild - type smc / scpab , presumably due to the inhibition by the hinge and the destabilizing action of the smc atpase . nevertheless , a large fraction of cellular smc / scpab must at least transiently adopt this conformation in order to localize to the replication origin region and to be able to form smc - gfp foci in  vivo ( figure  1 ) ( gruber and errington , 2009 , sullivan et  al . , 2009 ) . concomitantly , our a715c cross - linking experiments indicate that smc coiled coils can be juxtaposed in a sizeable fraction of proteins even when dimerization at the smc hinge is impaired , the scpa bridge absent and smc heads almost completely disengaged ( figure  4b ) . a dna binding site has previously been mapped to the bottom surface of the bs smc hinge dimer ( hirano and hirano , 2006 , soh et  al . , 2015 ) . dna binding at the coils / hinge junction appears to be sterically blocked by the juxtapositioning of the smc coiled coils and promoted by atp - dependent dissolution of the smc rod ( soh et  al . , 2015 ) . the same mechanism could be responsible for the targeting of smc / scpab to pars sites on  the chromosome . if parb / pars  like naked dna  were to bind to the bottom of the smc hinge dimer , then the presence of the hinge domain would be crucial for localization of smc(eq ) to the chromosome . to test this , we constructed an smc fragment lacking the entire hinge domain (  h  for hinge deletion ) by connecting the end of smc s n - terminal coiled coil helix ( amino acids 1499 ) to the start of the c - terminal coiled coil helix ( aa 6741186 ) using a flexible linker peptide ( -gggsgggsggg- ) . the smc(h ) construct was fused to a tap tag at its c terminus and integrated at the endogenous smc locus . smc(h ) was expressed at normal levels in b.  subtilis but failed to localize to the chromosome as judged by -tap chip ( figures 5a and s5a ) . however , a smc(h ) variant harboring the e1118q mutation displayed robust localization to pars-359 in the presence and absence of the scpa subunit ( figure  5a ) . overall , strains harboring either a mutant smc hinge domain or a complete deletion of the smc hinge produced very similar results , clearly demonstrating that the smc hinge is dispensable for the targeting of smc(eq ) to pars ( figure  5a ) and confirming that the hinge domain regulates chromosomal targeting indirectly  likely by affecting other parts of the smc / scpab complex . the above results demonstrate that neither the smc hinge nor the scpa and scpb subunits are strictly required for the localization of smc(eq ) to pars sites . in order to fine map potential binding sites for parb / pars on the smc(eq ) protein , we removed increasingly larger segments of the central part of a smc(eq)-tap allele by fusing selected n- and c - terminal smc sequences using a short linker peptide ( figure  5b ) . twelve such smc fragments ( designated as smchd - cc330 to smchd - cc30 ) were integrated into the endogenous smc locus by allelic replacement in a scpa strain . all these truncated smc(eq ) proteins were expressed at normal levels in b.  subtilis as judged by immunoblotting against the tap tag ( figures 5c and 5d ) . intriguingly , the seven larger fragments ( smchd - cc330smchd - cc70 ) yielded strong and specific enrichment at the pars-359 locus similar to the smc(mh - eq ) and smc(h - eq ) proteins . in contrast , the five shorter constructs ( smchd - cc50a smchd - cc30 ) lacked any specificity for pars-359 and instead displayed background levels of enrichment at all tested loci ( figures 5c and 5d ) . these results demonstrate that a large , central portion of smc  comprising its hinge domain and approximately two - thirds of the hinge proximal coiled coil  is dispensable for the specific recognition of parb / pars . a region located within the head proximal part of the smc coiled coil , however , appears to be critical for pars targeting because even small truncations in this region totally abolish localization to pars . an smc moiety critical for localization to pars thus appears to be located around hundred amino acid residues away from the smc head domain on the smc coiled coil . mapping of the coiled coil register demonstrates that this head - proximal third of the smc coiled coil includes a region in which the heptate register is interrupted in the n - terminal coiled coil helix and a 24 amino acid long peptide is inserted into the c - terminal -helix ( figure  s5d ) , ( waldman et  al . , 2015 ) . possibly , these extra sequences protrude from the smc coiled coil and might be involved in the interaction with parb protein and/or pars dna . in the rod configuration , smc / scpab exhibits very high specificity for pars sites on the bacterial chromosome when it is locked in its pre - hydrolysis conformation ( figures 1d and 2d ) . nonetheless , only a small proportion of wild - type smc / scpab actually localizes to pars sites in b.  subtilis as judged from anti - scpb and anti - smc chip - seq profiles ( figures 2a and 6a ) . in fact , smc / scpab rather displays a very broad distribution over the bacterial chromosome with a moderate peak at the replication origin and shallow gradients toward the replication terminus along both arms of the chromosome ( figures 6a and s2c ) ( gruber and errington , 2009 ) . formation of this long range gradient is completely abolished in the absence of parb protein ( figure  6a ) . this raises the intriguing question of how a highly - localized pool of parb protein might establish a very wide gradient of smc / scpab on the chromosome . conceivably , smc / scpab might first load onto the chromosome at a pars site and then redistribute into neighboring and more distant regions of the chromosome . to test this , we modified the pattern of chromosomal recruitment of smc / scpab by inserting a single additional pars site into the b.  subtilis chromosome and observed changes in the chromosomal distribution of wild - type smc / scpab . we inserted a 75-bp fragment of the parb gene including the pars-359 site or its non - functional variant , mpars , into the non - essential amye gene located 330  kb away from the replication origin on the right arm of the chromosome . the presence of the ectopic pars site at amye , designated as pars - amye , had no discernible effects on the growth of b.  subtilis . we then tested whether the artificial pars - amye locus serves as chromosomal landing site for smc / scpab using scpb chip - seq experiments in strains harboring the smc(eq ) gene ( figure  s6 ) . efficient targeting of smc(eq ) to pars - amye suggests that also a significant fraction of wild - type smc / scpab is loaded onto the chromosome at the synthetic pars - amye locus ( figure  s6 ) . the pattern of wild - type smc / scpab localization measured by scpb chip - seq was superficially similar in cells harboring the ectoptic pars or mpars site ( figure  6b ) . higher for example in a region between the replication origin and the amye locus when the additional pars site was present . in order to get a global and more quantitative picture of the differences between the two chip samples , we calculated enrichment ratios for each window along the chromosome ( figure  6b ) . strikingly , the differences between the two samples followed a clear pattern with opposite trends on the two arms of the chromosome . almost all loci on the right arm of the chromosome , which includes the ectopic pars site , were more highly enriched ( on average by 20% ) in the pars - amye sample , whereas dna from the left arm of the chromosome was generally more enriched ( 20% ) in the mpars sample . clearly , the addition of a single pars site at a defined position on the chromosome affects smc distribution in a chromosome arm - specific manner . what might be the underlying molecular mechanism ? smc / scpab could relocate from pars by three - dimensional ( 3d ) diffusion within a chromosomal domain or by one - dimensional ( 1d ) translocation along the dna backbone . 3d diffusion seems a highly unlikely explanation for intra - arm - specific relocation because loci on opposite chromosome arms are thought to be in close proximity in b.  subtilis ( le et  al . our data is much more consistent with 1d translocation of smc / scpab along a dna double helix within a chromosome arm . according to this hypothesis , loading of smc / scpab at the ectopic pars site might titrate condensin away from endogenous pars sites and thereby reduce loading on one arm of the chromosome , while increasing the fraction loaded onto the other . curiously , the re - distribution of smc complexes loaded onto the chromosome at the ectopic pars site appears to occur differently toward the replication origin and the terminus . in b. thus , the apparent difference in relocation toward and away from the replication origin might be due to head - on encounters with transcription or replication complexes ( wang et  al . , 2015 ) . overall , these experiments provide evidence that smc / scpab is able to translocate along a dna double helix  over large distances on the bacterial chromosome after its release from pars sites . the mechanistic bases for smc s dynamic association with chromosomes are in many ways mysterious . here , we reveal that the smc atpase cycle defines two different configurations of smc / scpab , which distinctly interact with the bacterial chromosome . the pre - atp hydrolysis state displays high specificity for pars proximal dna , whereas the specificity for pars is lost upon atp hydrolysis leading to the redistribution of smc / scpab within the chromosome . our findings define the atp engaged form of smchd(eq)-cc80 as minimal structure for the specific recognition of smc / scpab s chromosomal target ( figure  5 ) . they highlight the importance of a head proximal segment of the smc coiled coil in pars - dna targeting and raise intriguing questions . how is binding of smc / scpab to parb / pars - dna enabled by smc head engagement ? and conversely , how is physical association with the chromosome blocked when smc heads are disengaged ? based on the strict dependence of pars targeting on smc head engagement and its inverse correlation with smc rod formation , we propose that a putative interface for parb / pars on the head - proximal smc coiled coil is concealed or distorted within the smc rod . smc head engagement might simply trigger the opening of the smc rod and thereby unmask an interfaces for binding to parb / pars . however , dimerization defective smc proteins only very poorly localize to pars sites , despite featuring mostly  disengaged  smc coiled coils ( figures 4 and 5 ) . conceivably , the interaction via a single interface on monomeric smc is too transient for significant levels of targeting to pars . if so , then smc head engagement might arrange the two interfaces on a given smc dimer in a way that allows them to co - operatively and thus more stably bind a parb protein / pars dna complex . in this regard , it is tempting to speculate that dna passes between the smc coiled coils , because in this instance the 2-fold symmetry axis in the smc dimer is matched to the one in parb dimers . binding of smc to parb / pars - dna would therefore be restricted to the rare occasions when smc head domains engage with one another to dissolve the smc rod . although we have not been able to directly detect the recruitment of wild - type smc to pars sites , at least three observations strongly suggest that wild - type smc ( like smc(eq ) ) is targeted to pars on the chromosome . first of all , the formation of chromosomal foci by wild - type smc / scpab as well as its localization to the replication origin depend on parb protein and pars sites ( gruber and errington , 2009 , sullivan et  al . , 2009 ) . second , the efficiency of dna entrapment by smc / scpab is strongly decreased by the absence of parb , indicating that most smc / scpab is loaded onto the chromosome at pars sites ( wilhelm et  al . , we propose that transient head engagement in smc / scpab governs its brief encounters with chromosomal pars sites . it is important to note that the smc(eq ) protein might display residual levels of atp hydrolysis activity ( hirano and hirano , 2004 ) . it is thus conceivable that some observations made with smc(eq ) such as its dependence on scpab during head engagement and pars localization and the inhibition by hinge dimerization might be specific to this partially defective atp hydrolysis mutant . furthermore , it is possible that the association of smc(mh - eq ) ( and smc(eq)/scpab ) with parb / pars might be structurally somewhat different from wild - type smc / scpab . the chromosomal distribution of smc / scpab displays a single , broad peak centered on the replication origin and extending all the way to the replication terminus region ( figure  6a ) . formation of such molecular gradients can be explained by a localized source of molecules and their random / diffusional or directed motion away from the source . loading at pars establishes a tightly localized source of chromosomal smc / scpab . here , we present evidence for the subsequent relocation of smc / scpab from its loading sites into flanking dna . our findings are consistent with the idea that smc / scpab is able to translocate on the bacterial chromosome over hundreds of kilobases . interestingly , cohesin has also been suggested to move away from its loading sites upon atp hydrolysis possibly over several tens of kilobases ( hinshaw et  al . . what might be the purpose of such a striking and apparently conserved propensity for chromosomal relocation and what could be the molecular driving force ? the association of smc complexes with chromosomes by dna entrapment provides an obvious basis for a dna sliding mechanism . sliding of smc / scpab rings along a single dna molecule could help to identify and eliminate tangles within chromosomal dna or between sister dna molecules and thus promote chromosome segregation . however , this simple mechanism by itself fails to explain how smc / scpab could organize the chromosome . conceivably , smc / scpab ( like cohesin in eukaryotes ) acts as a dna clamp by capturing two or more dna double helices within a single smc / scpab ring or through the association of two or more smc / scpab rings each entrapping a single dna double helix . taking into account the proposed dna relocation activity , dna loops could be formed by smc / scpab and continuously expanded by the translocation of dna through smc / scpab rings . extrusion of dna loops  created at a pars site  explains how the left arm of the chromosome might be brought together with its right counterpart to establish the longitudinal organization of the chromosome observed in caulobacter crescentus and b.  subtilis ( le et  al . loop extrusion by smc complexes also provides a simple solution for the formation of linearly condensed rod - shaped chromosomes during mitosis ( alipour and marko , 2012 , brmann and gruber , 2015 , nasmyth , 2001 ) . however , the driving force for any proposed relocation and loop extrusion mechanisms remains enigmatic . smc / scpab appears to be able to translocate on the bacterial chromosome against the flow of replication forks and active transcription units , making a role of rna polymerase and replication fork proteins in translocation unlikely ( figure  6 ) ( wang et  al . , 2015 ) . smc itself is an enzyme that could harbor energy from the hydrolysis of atp to perform work . in principle , it could act as a motor protein for example by using its head engagement / disengagement cycle to progressively move dna through its ring in a directional manner ( figure  7 ) . for example , repetitive transitions between smc rod and smc ring states might allow continuous expansion of loops of chromosomal dna formed at pars ( figure  7 ) ( alipour and marko , 2012 , nasmyth , 2001 ) . our data indeed suggest that atp hydrolysis by smc / scpab is involved in its chromosomal redistribution after loading . however , it remains to be determined whether continuous atp hydrolysis by smc is needed for relocation to distant positions on the chromosome or whether a single round of atp hydrolysis is sufficient to trigger the relocation process . we discovered an unexpected antagonistic functional relationship between the two globular domains located at distal ends of the long smc coiled coil : dimerization at the smc hinge has a clear inhibitory activity on the engagement of smc head domains . we propose that the smc coiled coil acts as rather stiff rod , which positions the smc head in a way that is incompatible with atp - dependent head engagement when the two smc coiled coils are being aligned side - by - side . dimerization of smc hinge domains (  rod maker  ) promotes smc rod formation presumably by simply bringing the ends of two smc coiled coils in close proximity in a way that allows them to zip up . head engagement with the help of scpab (  rod breakers  ) , however , positions the two other ends of the smc coiled coils at a distance to each other , thus favoring the unzipping of the smc rod . in analogy , to the role of nbds in abc transporters , engagement and disengagement of smc head domains might transform the smc coiled coil between a rod - like state and a more open ring - like state . only the open state appears to be able to contact dna and the parb / pars substrates via two separate interfaces located at the smc hinge and within the head proximal coiled coil , respectively . substrate binding is then likely triggering atp hydrolysis , thereby driven head disengagement and rod re - formation , which in turn releases dna and parb / pars from its binding sites ( figure  7 ) . we propose that transitions between open and closed states are central aspects of smc biochemistry  conceivably regulating substrate binding to many or all smc / kleisin complexes . genetic modifications were introduced via double cross - over recombination into the genome of b.  subtilis 1a700 . cells were made competent and grown on smg or na medium supplied with antibiotics as previously described ( brmann et  al . , 2013 ) . chip - qpcr experiments were essentially performed as previously described ( gruber and errington , 2009 ) . chip samples were prepared as described above with the exception that several immunoprecipitate ( ip ) samples were loaded onto the same pcr purification column to obtain sufficient dna material . dna ( 15  ng ) was analyzed by  illumina sequencing at the max planck genome centre in cologne . briefly , dna was fragmented by sonication ( covaris s2 ) to fragment sizes ranging from 220280  bp with a main peak of 250  bp . dna libraries were prepared using the ovation ultralow library system ( nugen ) kit ( version v1 ) including 15 cycles of pcr amplification . five to ten million sequence reads were obtained on a hiseq2500 ( illumina ) with 100-bp read length . the obtained reads were mapped to the genome with bowtie ( http://galaxyproject.org ) using default settings and randomly assigning sequencing reads from repetitive dna elements to a  single location . subsequent data analysis was performed using seqmonk ( http://www.bioinformatics.babraham.ac.uk/projects/seqmonk/ ) and microsoft excel . in  vivo cross - linking of cysteine - modified smc protein was performed as described previously ( soh et  al . , 2015 ) . overnight cultures in smg medium were diluted to an od600 of 0.005 and grown to od600 0.020.03 in smg medium . cells were mounted on agarose pads and visualized on an applied precision deltavision rt system equipped with an olympus ix-71 inverted base microscope , an olympus uplanapo 100/na1.35 oil immersion objective and a photometrics coolsnap hq 12 bit monochrome camera at the imaging facility of the max planck institute of biochemistry , martinsried . ; live - cell imaging , a.m. and l.w . ; chip - qpcr , a.m. and l.w . ; chip - seq experiments , a.m. ; cys cross - linking experiments , f.b . ; exploratory chip - qpcr experiments , a.a . ; mapping of the smc coiled coil register and protein purification , m .- l.d .- d ; conception and interpretation of experiments , a.m. , f.b . , and s.g . ; manuscript preparation , a.m. , f.b .
summarysmc / scpab promotes chromosome segregation in  prokaryotes , presumably by compacting and resolving nascent sister chromosomes . 
 the underlying mechanisms , however , are poorly understood . here 
 , we investigate the role of the smc atpase activity in the recruitment of smc / scpab to the bacillus subtilis chromosome . 
 we demonstrate that targeting of smc / scpab to parb / pars loading sites is strictly dependent on engagement of smc head domains and relies on an open organization of the smc coiled coils . 
 we find that dimerization of the smc hinge domain stabilizes closed smc rods and hinders head engagement as well as chromosomal targeting . 
 conversely , the scpab sub - complex promotes head engagement and smc rod opening and thereby facilitates recruitment of smc to pars sites . upon atp hydrolysis , smc 
 / scpab is released from loading sites and relocates within the chromosome  presumably through translocation along dna double helices . 
 our findings define an intermediate state in the process of chromosome organization by smc .