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Initiation mechanisms in replication of filamentous phage DNA
Author(s) -
Horiuchi Kensuke
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
genes to cells
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.912
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1365-2443
pISSN - 1356-9597
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2443.1997.1360334.x
Subject(s) - biology , coding strand , dna , primer (cosmetics) , dna supercoil , microbiology and biotechnology , dna replication , polymerase , rna , transcription bubble , sense strand , promoter , genetics , rna dependent rna polymerase , gene , gene expression , chemistry , organic chemistry
Filamentous phage DNA replication occurs in two steps. First, an RNA‐primed minus strand is made on the plus strand. Then, a new plus strand is made on the resulting double strand. The RNA primer which initiates synthesis of the minus strand is produced at a specific site on the plus strand template by the host RNA polymerase holoenzyme. Despite a lack of sequences similar to the promoter consensus, the DNA replication origin has a much higher affinity for the holoenzyme than the transcriptional promoters. The non‐template strand of the single‐stranded −10 region of the origin appears to be responsible for this high affinity. The recognition mechanisms seem to share common features with those in transcriptional promoters. Plus‐strand synthesis is initiated by a specific nick introduced into the negatively supercoiled replicative form by the phage‐encoded initiator protein. The nicking reaction is preceded by an ordered series of protein‐induced DNA conformational changes.