Cohesion by topology: sister chromatids interlocked by DNA

Sister chromatid cohesion is coupled with chromosome replication and influences chromosome segregation and intra-S repair. Specialized proteins, the cohesins, together with other pathways contribute to tether sister chromatids. In this issue of Genes & Development, Wang and colleagues (pp. 2426-2433) demonstrate that TopoIV, a type II DNA topoisomerase, modulates cohesion in Escherichia coli, by removing interlocked DNA junctions between sister chromatids. They propose that DNA precatenanes, arising during replication fork progression, hold sister chromatids together.