The mechanism of DNA replication termination in vertebrates

James M. Dewar, Magda Budzowska and Johannes C. Walter ()
Additional contact information
James M. Dewar: Harvard Medical School
Magda Budzowska: Harvard Medical School
Johannes C. Walter: Harvard Medical School

Nature, 2015, vol. 525, issue 7569, 345-350

Abstract: Abstract Eukaryotic DNA replication terminates when replisomes from adjacent replication origins converge. Termination involves local completion of DNA synthesis, decatenation of daughter molecules and replisome disassembly. Termination has been difficult to study because termination events are generally asynchronous and sequence nonspecific. To overcome these challenges, we paused converging replisomes with a site-specific barrier in Xenopus egg extracts. Upon removal of the barrier, forks underwent synchronous and site-specific termination, allowing mechanistic dissection of this process. We show that DNA synthesis does not slow detectably as forks approach each other, and that leading strands pass each other unhindered before undergoing ligation to downstream lagging strands. Dissociation of the replicative CMG helicase (comprising CDC45, MCM2-7 and GINS) occurs only after the final ligation step, and is not required for completion of DNA synthesis, strongly suggesting that converging CMGs pass one another and dissociate from double-stranded DNA. This termination mechanism allows rapid completion of DNA synthesis while avoiding premature replisome disassembly.

Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature14887 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:525:y:2015:i:7569:d:10.1038_nature14887

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature14887

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().