Genome-scale analysis of metazoan replication origins reveals their organization in specific but flexible sites defined by conserved features.

ABSTRACT: In metazoans, thousands of DNA replication origins (Oris) are activated to replicate DNA at each cell cycle. Although their timing of activation is better understood, their genomic organization and their genetic nature remain elusive. Here, we identified Oris by nascent strand (NS) purification and characterized their common features by performing a genome-wide analysis in both Drosophila and mouse cell lines. We show that in both species most CpG islands (CGI) contain Oris, although methylation is nearly absent in Drosophila, suggesting that this epigenetic mark is not crucial for defining the initiation event. Moreover, nascent strands at the borders of CGIs show a striking bimodal distribution, suggestive of a dual initiation event. We also found that Oris contain a unique nucleotide skew around NS peaks, characterized by G/T and C/A over-representation at 5’ and 3’ of the Ori sites, respectively. GC-rich elements are detected, which are good predictors of Oris, in both mouse and Drosophila, suggesting that common sequence features are part of metazoan Oris. In the heterochromatic chromosome 4 of Drosophila, Oris are strongly correlated with HP1 binding sites. At the chromosome level, we show that Oris are organized in Ori-rich and -poor regions that co-localize with early and late replicating domains, respectively. Finally, the genome-wide analysis was coupled with a DNA combing analysis of the in-vivo spacing of replication origins. The results suggest that Oris are in large excess, and organized in groups of site-specific but flexible origins that define replicons, where a single origin is used in each group. This organization provides both site specificity and Ori firing flexibility in each replicon, allowing possible adaptation of DNA replication to environmental cues and cell fates.

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus Drosophila melanogaster

PROVIDER: GSE29183 | GEO | 2011/07/28

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA139989

REPOSITORIES: GEO