DNA primase acts as a molecular brake in DNA replication

Jong-Bong Lee, Richard K. Hite, Samir M. Hamdan, X. Sunney Xie, Charles C. Richardson and Antoine M. van Oijen ()
Additional contact information
Jong-Bong Lee: Harvard Medical School
Richard K. Hite: Graduate Program of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Samir M. Hamdan: Harvard Medical School
X. Sunney Xie: Harvard University
Charles C. Richardson: Harvard Medical School
Antoine M. van Oijen: Harvard Medical School

Nature, 2006, vol. 439, issue 7076, 621-624

Abstract: DNA branches out Accurate DNA replication is vital to reproduction in all living organisms. Three papers in this issue and a new Web Focus ( http://tinyurl.com/e3ecg ) present answers to long-standing questions about what goes on at DNA replication forks to ensure this accuracy. Heller and Marians throw light on the fact that even heavily damaged DNA is replicated at high speed. They find that bacterial replication restart systems can prime both leading and lagging DNA strands via DnaG primase. This contradicts the accepted view that leading-strand synthesis is necessarily continuous, and may force a re-evaluation of models for initiation of chromosome replication. Zenkin et al. tackled the mystery of how a short transcript synthesized by RNA polymerase can serve as a primer for DNA replication. The answer lies in a previously unknown transcription elongation complex that may also link DNA replication and transcription machineries. And Lee et al. tackled the matter of how the very different processes taking place on leading and lagging DNA strands are synchronized. As primer synthesis proceeds, DNA primase acts as a molecular brake on the leading-strand polymerase during slow enzymatic steps on the lagging strand.

Date: 2006
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DOI: 10.1038/nature04317

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