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Transcription through a simple DNA repeat blocks replication elongation
Author(s) -
Krasilnikova Maria M.,
Samadashwily George M.,
Krasilnikov Andrey S.,
Mirkin Sergei M.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
the embo journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.484
H-Index - 392
eISSN - 1460-2075
pISSN - 0261-4189
DOI - 10.1093/emboj/17.17.5095
Subject(s) - biology , control of chromosome duplication , dna replication , transcription (linguistics) , ter protein , replication factor c , origin recognition complex , origin of replication , genetics , pre replication complex , eukaryotic dna replication , minichromosome maintenance , dna polymerase ii , microbiology and biotechnology , dna , rna , gene , reverse transcriptase , linguistics , philosophy
The influence of d(G) n ·d(C) n repeats on plasmid replication in Escherichia coli cells was analyzed using electrophoretic analysis of replication intermediates. These repeats impeded the replication fork in a length‐ and orientation‐dependent manner. Unexpectedly, the replication arrest relied primarily on the repeats' transcription. When the d(C) n sequence served as the transcriptional template, both transcription and replication were blocked. This was true for transcription driven by either bacterial or phage RNA polymerases. We hypothesize that the replication fork halts after it encounters a stalled ternary complex of the RNA polymerase, the DNA template and the r(G) n transcript. This constitutes a novel mechanism for the regulation of replication elongation. The effects of this mechanism on repeat length polymorphism and genome rearrangements are discussed.