Ultrafast CTCF dynamics control cohesin barrier function

Genomes are organized into chromatin loops through cohesin-mediated extrusion, with CTCF acting as a polar boundary element. As cohesin approaches CTCF at kilobase-per-second speeds, it must rapidly choose whether to stall or bypass. How CTCF encodes this probabilistic decision within a brief encounter window has remained unclear. Here we show that CTCF governs this probabilistic outcome by rapidly sampling a dynamic ensemble of conformations generated by spontaneous rearrangements of its DNA-binding zinc fingers. This ensemble is tuned by DNA sequence, CpG methylation, nearby nucleosomes, and the cohesin regulator PDS5A before cohesin engagement. Upon cohesin binding, PDS5A enhances loop-anchor mechanical stability, reinforcing orientation-dependent boundaries. These findings establish conformational ensemble tuning, rather than static occupancy, as a regulatory principle linking base pair-scale motions to megabase-scale genome organization. One sentence summaryChromatin boundary function is governed not by CTCF occupancy alone, but by a tunable ensemble of DNA-bound conformations that probabilistically gates cohesin capture.