Crenarchaeal 3D Genome: A Prototypical Chromosome Architecture for Eukaryotes (Cell)

In this issue of Cell, Takemata et al. demonstrate that coalescin (ClsN), an archaeal condensin ortholog, facilitates higher-level organization of chromosomes in crenarchaea that bears greater similarity to metazoans than bacteria. Their study unravels biological function for chromosome organization in Archaea and provides insights into the evolution of eukaryotic chromosomal compartmentalization.