X-Nico

3 unusual facts about DNA replication


Deoxyuridine

They are similar enough to be incorporated as part of DNA replication, but they possess side groups on the uracil component (an iodine and a CF3 group, respectively), that prevent base pairing.

Photosynthetic picoplankton

In 1988, two American researchers, Carpenter and Chang, had suggested estimating the speed of cell division of phytoplankton by following the course of DNA replication by microscopy.

Thymineless death

Thymineless death is the phenomenon by which bacteria, yeasts and mammalian cells undergo irreversible cell death when they are starved of thymidine triphosphate (dTTP), an essential precursor for DNA replication.


Bromodeoxyuridine

BrdU can be incorporated into the newly synthesized DNA of replicating cells (during the S phase of the cell cycle), substituting for thymidine during DNA replication.

DNA polymerase delta

DNA polymerase delta is an enzyme complex found in eukaryotes that is involved in DNA replication and repair, and it consists of the proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), the multisubunit replication factor C, and the 4 subunit polymerase complex: POLD1, POLD2, POLD3, and POLD4.

Junctional diversity

Exonucleases remove these unpaired nucleotides and the gaps are filled by DNA synthesis and repair machinery.

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis

Kary Mullis conceived PCR in 1985 as an in vitro simplified reproduction of the in vivo process of DNA replication.

Y RNA

Two functions have been described for Y RNAs in the literature: As a repressor of Ro60, and as an initiation factor for DNA replication.


see also

Bruce William Stillman

He developed a biochemical system to study DNA replication-coupled chromatin assembly in a test tube and discovered proteins such as Chromatin Assembly Factor-1 (CAF-1) that cooperate with the DNA replication machinery to assemble new histones onto the DNA.

DNAA

DnaA is a replication initiation factor which promotes the unwinding or denaturation of DNA at oriC, during DNA replication in prokaryotes.

E2F

E2F target genes encode proteins involved in DNA replication (for example DNA polymerase, thymidine kinase, dihydrofolate reductase and cdc6), and chromosomal replication (replication origin-binding protein HsOrc1 and MCM5).

Force spectroscopy

In this way a great deal has been learned in recent years about the mechanochemical coupling in the enzymes responsible for muscle contraction, transport in the cell, energy generation (F1-ATPase), DNA replication and transcription (polymerases), DNA unknotting and unwinding (topoisomerases and helicases), and so on.

Murder of Celia Douty

Dr Kary Mullis, who won a Nobel Prize for his work on DNA replication, advised the defence throughout the trial, but was not called to testify.

Processivity

Because the binding of the polymerase to the template is the rate-limiting step in DNA synthesis, the overall rate of DNA replication during S phase of the cell cycle is dependent on the processivity of the DNA polymerases performing the replication.