Coupling chemosensory array formation and localization

Chemotaxis allows motile bacteria to sense their surroundings and move in a biased manner towards more favorable conditions. Chemotaxis proteins are organized into highly ordered multicomponent signaling arrays. Correct formation and localization of arrays is important for proper chemotactic behavior. How factors promoting array positioning are able to access and guide their localization without disrupting array formation and function is not clear. Here we show how protein ParP couples both the formation and localization of signaling arrays. Particularly, ParP intercalates into the universal structure of chemotactic signaling arrays and drives their localized formation and cellular inheritance whilst maintaining their functional capacity.