Days weaving the lagging strand synthesis of DNA - A personal recollection of the discovery of Okazaki fragments and studies on discontinuous replication mechanism.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Okazaki T
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5489436 | biostudies-other | 2017
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
Similar Datasets
Project description:Upon completion of synthesis of an Okazaki fragment, the lagging strand replicase must recycle to the next primer at the replication fork in under 0.1 s to sustain the physiological rate of DNA synthesis. We tested the collision model that posits that cycling is triggered by the polymerase encountering the 5'-end of the preceding Okazaki fragment. Probing with surface plasmon resonance, DNA polymerase III holoenzyme initiation complexes were formed on an immobilized gapped template. Initiation complexes exhibit a half-life of dissociation of approximately 15 min. Reduction in gap size to 1 nt increased the rate of dissociation 2.5-fold, and complete filling of the gap increased the off-rate an additional 3-fold (t(1/2)~2 min). An exogenous primed template and ATP accelerated dissociation an additional 4-fold in a reaction that required complete filling of the gap. Neither a 5'-triphosphate nor a 5'-RNA terminated oligonucleotide downstream of the polymerase accelerated dissociation further. Thus, the rate of polymerase release upon gap completion and collision with a downstream Okazaki fragment is 1000-fold too slow to support an adequate rate of cycling and likely provides a backup mechanism to enable polymerase release when the other cycling signals are absent. Kinetic measurements indicate that addition of the last nucleotide to fill the gap is not the rate-limiting step for polymerase release and cycling. Modest (approximately 7 nt) strand displacement is observed after the gap between model Okazaki fragments is filled. To determine the identity of the protein that senses gap filling to modulate affinity of the replicase for the template, we performed photo-cross-linking experiments with highly reactive and non-chemoselective diazirines. Only the ? subunit cross-linked, indicating that it serves as the sensor.
| S-EPMC3236602 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Genome-wide replication fork directionality measured by strand-specific sequencing of Okazaki fragments in chicken lymphoma cells (DT40).
2022-02-18 | GSE196761 | GEO
Project description:Fifty per cent of the genome is discontinuously replicated on the lagging strand as Okazaki fragments. Eukaryotic Okazaki fragments remain poorly characterized and, because nucleosomes are rapidly deposited on nascent DNA, Okazaki fragment processing and nucleosome assembly potentially affect one another. Here we show that ligation-competent Okazaki fragments in Saccharomyces cerevisiae are sized according to the nucleosome repeat. Using deep sequencing, we demonstrate that ligation junctions preferentially occur near nucleosome midpoints rather than in internucleosomal linker regions. Disrupting chromatin assembly or lagging-strand polymerase processivity affects both the size and the distribution of Okazaki fragments, suggesting a role for nascent chromatin, assembled immediately after the passage of the replication fork, in the termination of Okazaki fragment synthesis. Our studies represent the first high-resolution analysis--to our knowledge--of eukaryotic Okazaki fragments in vivo, and reveal the interconnection between lagging-strand synthesis and chromatin assembly.
| S-EPMC3490407 | biostudies-literature
Project description:DNA polymerase ? (pol ?) is best known for its ability to bypass UV-induced thymine-thymine (T-T) dimers and other bulky DNA lesions, but pol ? also has other cellular roles. Here, we present evidence that pol ? competes with DNA polymerases ? and ? for the synthesis of the lagging strand genome-wide, where it also shows a preference for T-T in the DNA template. Moreover, we found that the C-terminus of pol ?, which contains a PCNA-Interacting Protein motif is required for pol ? to function in lagging strand synthesis. Finally, we provide evidence that a pol ? dependent signature is also found to be lagging strand specific in patients with skin cancer. Taken together, these findings provide insight into the physiological role of DNA synthesis by pol ? and have implications for our understanding of how our genome is replicated to avoid mutagenesis, genome instability and cancer.
| S-EPMC6411934 | biostudies-literature
Project description:We investigated the genome-wide distribution of Okazaki fragments in the commonly used laboratory Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain S288C to study the DNA replication model adopted by the budding yeast. The method based upon lambda exonuclease digestion for purification of RNA-primed replication intermediates was first improved to be suitable for the purification of Okazaki fragments. Then, we used this improved method to purify Okazaki fragments from S288C yeast cells, followed by Illumina sequencing. We found that the expected asymmetric distribution of Okazaki fragments around confirmed replication origins, which was derived from the semi-discontinuous DNA replication model, was not observed on S. cerevisiae chromosomes. Even around two highly efficient replication origins, ARS522 and ARS416, the ratios of Okazaki fragments on both strands were inconsistent with the semi-discontinuous DNA replication model. Our study supported the discontinuous DNA replication model. Besides, we also observed that Okazaki fragments were overpresented in the transcribed regions in S. cerevisiae mitochondrial genome, which indicated the interplay between transcription and DNA replication. Examination of the distribution of Okazaki fragments in Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain S288C.
2013-06-18 | E-GEOD-42929 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Okazaki fragment maturation to produce continuous lagging strands in eukaryotic cells requires precise coordination of strand displacement synthesis by DNA polymerase delta (Pol delta) with 5.-flap cutting by FEN1(RAD27) endonuclease. Excessive strand displacement is normally prevented by the 3.-exonuclease activity of Pol delta. This core maturation machinery can be assisted by Dna2 nuclease/helicase that processes long flaps. Our genetic studies show that deletion of the POL32 (third subunit of Pol delta) or PIF1 helicase genes can suppress lethality or growth defects of rad27Delta pol3-D520V mutants (defective for FEN1(RAD27) and the 3.-exonuclease of Pol delta) that produce long flaps and of dna2Delta mutants that are defective in cutting long flaps. On the contrary, pol32Delta or pif1Delta caused lethality of rad27Delta exo1Delta double mutants, suggesting that Pol32 and Pif1 are required to generate longer flaps that can be processed by Dna2 in the absence of the short flap processing activities of FEN1(RAD27) and Exo1. The genetic analysis reveals a remarkable flexibility of the Okazaki maturation machinery and is in accord with our biochemical analysis. In vitro, the generation of short flaps by Pol delta is not affected by the presence of Pol32; however, longer flaps only accumulate when Pol32 is present. The presence of FEN1(RAD27) during strand displacement synthesis curtails displacement in favor of flap cutting, thus suggesting an active hand-off mechanism from Pol delta to FEN1(RAD27). Finally, RNA-DNA hybrids are more readily displaced by Pol delta than DNA hybrids, thereby favoring degradation of initiator RNA during Okazaki maturation.
| S-EPMC2590699 | biostudies-literature
Project description:DNA mismatch repair (MMR) pathways coordinate the excision and re-synthesis of newly-replicated DNA if a mismatched base-pair has been identified by protein MutS or MutS homologues (MSHs) after replication. DNA excision during MMR is initiated at single-strand breaks (SSBs) in vitro, and several redundant processes have been observed in reconstituted systems which either require a pre-formed SSB in the DNA or require a mismatch-activated nicking endonuclease to introduce a SSB in order to initiate MMR. However, the conditions under which each of these processes may actually occur in living cells have remained obscured by the limitations of current MMR assays. Here we use a novel assay involving chemically-modified oligonucleotide probes to insert targeted DNA 'mismatches' directly into the genome of living bacteria to interrogate their replication-coupled repair processes quantitatively in a strand-, orientation-, and mismatched nucleotide-specific manner. This 'semi-protected oligonucleotide recombination' (SPORE) assay reveals direct evidence in Escherichia coli of an efficient endonuclease-independent MMR process on the lagging strand-a mechanism that has long-since been considered for lagging-strand repair but never directly shown until now. We find endonuclease-independent MMR is coordinated asymmetrically with respect to the replicating DNA-directed primarily from 3'- of the mismatch-and that repair coordinated from 3'- of the mismatch is in fact the primary mechanism of lagging-strand MMR. While further work is required to explore and identify the molecular requirements for this alternative endonuclease-independent MMR pathway, these findings made possible using the SPORE assay are the first direct report of this long-suspected mechanism in vivo.
| S-EPMC6084803 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The two DNA strands of the nuclear genome are replicated asymmetrically using three DNA polymerases, ?, ?, and ?. Current evidence suggests that DNA polymerase ? (Pol ?) is the primary leading strand replicase, whereas Pols ? and ? primarily perform lagging strand replication. The fact that these polymerases differ in fidelity and error specificity is interesting in light of the fact that the stability of the nuclear genome depends in part on the ability of mismatch repair (MMR) to correct different mismatches generated in different contexts during replication. Here we provide the first comparison, to our knowledge, of the efficiency of MMR of leading and lagging strand replication errors. We first use the strand-biased ribonucleotide incorporation propensity of a Pol ? mutator variant to confirm that Pol ? is the primary leading strand replicase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We then use polymerase-specific error signatures to show that MMR efficiency in vivo strongly depends on the polymerase, the mismatch composition, and the location of the mismatch. An extreme case of variation by location is a T-T mismatch that is refractory to MMR. This mismatch is flanked by an AT-rich triplet repeat sequence that, when interrupted, restores MMR to > 95% efficiency. Thus this natural DNA sequence suppresses MMR, placing a nearby base pair at high risk of mutation due to leading strand replication infidelity. We find that, overall, MMR most efficiently corrects the most potentially deleterious errors (indels) and then the most common substitution mismatches. In combination with earlier studies, the results suggest that significant differences exist in the generation and repair of Pol ?, ?, and ? replication errors, but in a generally complementary manner that results in high-fidelity replication of both DNA strands of the yeast nuclear genome.
| S-EPMC3469411 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The origin of mutations is central to understanding evolution and of key relevance to health. Variation occurs non-randomly across the genome, and mechanisms for this remain to be defined. Here we report that the 5' ends of Okazaki fragments have significantly increased levels of nucleotide substitution, indicating a replicative origin for such mutations. Using a novel method, emRiboSeq, we map the genome-wide contribution of polymerases, and show that despite Okazaki fragment processing, DNA synthesized by error-prone polymerase-α (Pol-α) is retained in vivo, comprising approximately 1.5% of the mature genome. We propose that DNA-binding proteins that rapidly re-associate post-replication act as partial barriers to Pol-δ-mediated displacement of Pol-α-synthesized DNA, resulting in incorporation of such Pol-α tracts and increased mutation rates at specific sites. We observe a mutational cost to chromatin and regulatory protein binding, resulting in mutation hotspots at regulatory elements, with signatures of this process detectable in both yeast and humans.
| S-EPMC4374164 | biostudies-literature
Project description:We investigated the genome-wide distribution of Okazaki fragments in the commonly used laboratory Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain S288C to study the DNA replication model adopted by the budding yeast. The method based upon lambda exonuclease digestion for purification of RNA-primed replication intermediates was first improved to be suitable for the purification of Okazaki fragments. Then, we used this improved method to purify Okazaki fragments from S288C yeast cells, followed by Illumina sequencing. We found that the expected asymmetric distribution of Okazaki fragments around confirmed replication origins, which was derived from the semi-discontinuous DNA replication model, was not observed on S. cerevisiae chromosomes. Even around two highly efficient replication origins, ARS522 and ARS416, the ratios of Okazaki fragments on both strands were inconsistent with the semi-discontinuous DNA replication model. Our study supported the discontinuous DNA replication model. Besides, we also observed that Okazaki fragments were overpresented in the transcribed regions in S. cerevisiae mitochondrial genome, which indicated the interplay between transcription and DNA replication.
2013-06-18 | GSE42929 | GEO