Initiation of archaeal DNA replication

2003 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 669-673 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.R. Jenkinson ◽  
J.P.J. Chong

The identification of DNA as the genetic material and the elucidation of its structure by Watson and Crick [Watson and Crick, (1953) Nature (London) 171, 737–738], which has its 50th anniversary this year, first suggested the simple elegance with which the problem of passing on precise genetic information from one generation to the next could be solved. Semi-conservative replication is perhaps one of the simplest biological concepts to explain and understand. However, despite an enormous amount of effort in the intervening years, details of the way in which this process is regulated and performed are still unclear in many organisms. Recent work suggests that, due to their simplicity, the Archaea may make a good model for understanding some of the aspects of eukaryotic replication that still elude us.

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 76
Author(s):  
Aaron Morgan ◽  
Sarah LeGresley ◽  
Christopher Fischer

The packaging of the eukaryotic genome into chromatin regulates the storage of genetic information, including the access of the cell’s DNA metabolism machinery. Indeed, since the processes of DNA replication, translation, and repair require access to the underlying DNA, several mechanisms, both active and passive, have evolved by which chromatin structure can be regulated and modified. One mechanism relies upon the function of chromatin remodeling enzymes which couple the free energy obtained from the binding and hydrolysis of ATP to the mechanical work of repositioning and rearranging nucleosomes. Here, we review recent work on the nucleosome mobilization activity of this essential family of molecular machines.


Author(s):  
W.M. Stobbs

I do not have access to the abstracts of the first meeting of EMSA but at this, the 50th Anniversary meeting of the Electron Microscopy Society of America, I have an excuse to consider the historical origins of the approaches we take to the use of electron microscopy for the characterisation of materials. I have myself been actively involved in the use of TEM for the characterisation of heterogeneities for little more than half of that period. My own view is that it was between the 3rd International Meeting at London, and the 1956 Stockholm meeting, the first of the European series , that the foundations of the approaches we now take to the characterisation of a material using the TEM were laid down. (This was 10 years before I took dynamical theory to be etched in stone.) It was at the 1956 meeting that Menter showed lattice resolution images of sodium faujasite and Hirsch, Home and Whelan showed images of dislocations in the XlVth session on “metallography and other industrial applications”. I have always incidentally been delighted by the way the latter authors misinterpreted astonishingly clear thickness fringes in a beaten (”) foil of Al as being contrast due to “large strains”, an error which they corrected with admirable rapidity as the theory developed. At the London meeting the research described covered a broad range of approaches, including many that are only now being rediscovered as worth further effort: however such is the power of “the image” to persuade that the above two papers set trends which influence, perhaps too strongly, the approaches we take now. Menter was clear that the way the planes in his image tended to be curved was associated with the imaging conditions rather than with lattice strains, and yet it now seems to be common practice to assume that the dots in an “atomic resolution image” can faithfully represent the variations in atomic spacing at a localised defect. Even when the more reasonable approach is taken of matching the image details with a computed simulation for an assumed model, the non-uniqueness of the interpreted fit seems to be rather rarely appreciated. Hirsch et al., on the other hand, made a point of using their images to get numerical data on characteristics of the specimen they examined, such as its dislocation density, which would not be expected to be influenced by uncertainties in the contrast. Nonetheless the trends were set with microscope manufacturers producing higher and higher resolution microscopes, while the blind faith of the users in the image produced as being a near directly interpretable representation of reality seems to have increased rather than been generally questioned. But if we want to test structural models we need numbers and it is the analogue to digital conversion of the information in the image which is required.


2018 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 498-516
Author(s):  
Neil O'Sullivan

Of the hundreds of Greek common nouns and adjectives preserved in our MSS of Cicero, about three dozen are found written in the Latin alphabet as well as in the Greek. So we find, alongside συμπάθεια, also sympathia, and ἱστορικός as well as historicus. This sort of variation has been termed alphabet-switching; it has received little attention in connection with Cicero, even though it is relevant to subjects of current interest such as his bilingualism and the role of code-switching and loanwords in his works. Rather than addressing these issues directly, this discussion sets out information about the way in which the words are written in our surviving MSS of Cicero and takes further some recent work on the presentation of Greek words in Latin texts. It argues that, for the most part, coherent patterns and explanations can be found in the alphabetic choices exhibited by them, or at least by the earliest of them when there is conflict in the paradosis, and that this coherence is evidence for a generally reliable transmission of Cicero's original choices. While a lack of coherence might indicate unreliable transmission, or even an indifference on Cicero's part, a consistent pattern can only really be explained as an accurate record of coherent alphabet choice made by Cicero when writing Greek words.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 89-92
Author(s):  
Muhammad Amir ◽  
Sabeera Afzal ◽  
Alia Ishaq

Polymerases were revealed first in 1970s. Most important to the modest perception the enzyme responsible for nuclear DNA replication that was pol , for DNA repair pol and for mitochondrial DNA replication pol  DNA construction and renovation done by DNA polymerases, so directing both the constancy and discrepancy of genetic information. Replication of genome initiate with DNA template-dependent fusion of small primers of RNA. This preliminary phase in replication of DNA demarcated as de novo primer synthesis which is catalyzed by specified polymerases known as primases. Sixteen diverse DNA-synthesizing enzymes about human perspective are devoted to replication, reparation, mutilation lenience, and inconsistency of nuclear DNA. But in dissimilarity, merely one DNA polymerase has been called in mitochondria. It has been suggest that PrimPol is extremely acting the roles by re-priming DNA replication in mitochondria to permit an effective and appropriate way replication to be accomplished. Investigations from a numeral of test site have significantly amplified our appreciative of the role, recruitment and regulation of the enzyme during DNA replication. Though, we are simply just start to increase in value the versatile roles that play PrimPol in eukaryote.


2004 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 95-105
Author(s):  
Margaret Harvey

It is often forgotten that the medieval Church imposed public penance and reconciliation by law. The discipline was administered by the church courts, among which one of the most important, because it acted at local level, was that of the archdeacon. In the later Middle Ages and certainly by 1435, the priors of Durham were archdeacons in all the churches appropriated to the monastery. The priors had established their rights in Durham County by the early fourteenth century and in Northumberland slightly later. Although the origins of this peculiar jurisdiction were long ago unravelled by Barlow, there is no full account of how it worked in practice. Yet it is not difficult from the Durham archives to elicit a coherent account, with examples, of the way penance and ecclesiastical justice were administered from day to day in the Durham area in this period. The picture that emerges from these documents, though not in itself unusual, is nevertheless valuable and affords an extraordinary degree of detail which is missing from other places, where the evidence no longer exists. This study should complement the recent work by Larry Poos for Lincoln and Wisbech, drawing attention to an institution which would reward further research. It is only possible here to outline what the court did and how and why it was used.


2021 ◽  
Vol 90 (1) ◽  
pp. 287-320
Author(s):  
John D. Bagert ◽  
Tom W. Muir

The field of epigenetics has exploded over the last two decades, revealing an astonishing level of complexity in the way genetic information is stored and accessed in eukaryotes. This expansion of knowledge, which is very much ongoing, has been made possible by the availability of evermore sensitive and precise molecular tools. This review focuses on the increasingly important role that chemistry plays in this burgeoning field. In an effort to make these contributions more accessible to the nonspecialist, we group available chemical approaches into those that allow the covalent structure of the protein and DNA components of chromatin to be manipulated, those that allow the activity of myriad factors that act on chromatin to be controlled, and those that allow the covalent structure and folding of chromatin to be characterized. The application of these tools is illustrated through a series of case studies that highlight how the molecular precision afforded by chemistry is being used to establish causal biochemical relationships at the heart of epigenetic regulation.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christophe de La Roche Saint-André ◽  
Vincent Géli

AbstractDNA replication is a highly regulated process that occurs in the context of chromatin structure and is sensitive to several histone post-translational modifications. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the histone methylase Set1 is responsible for the transcription-dependent deposition of H3K4 methylation (H3K4me) throughout the genome. Here we show that a combination of a hypomorphic replication mutation (orc5-1) with the absence of Set1 (set1Δ) compromises the progression through S phase, and this is associated with a large increase in DNA damage. The ensuing DNA damage checkpoint activation, in addition to that of the spindle assembly checkpoint, restricts the growth of orc5-1 set1Δ. Interestingly, orc5-1 set1Δ is sensitive to the lack of RNase H activity while a reduction of histone levels is able to counterbalance the loss of Set1. We propose that the recently described Set1-dependent mitigation of transcription-replication conflicts becomes critical for growth when the replication forks accelerate due to decreased origin firing in the orc5-1 background. Furthermore, we show that an increase of reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, likely a consequence of the elevated DNA damage, is partly responsible for the lethality in orc5-1 set1Δ.Author summaryDNA replication, that ensures the duplication of the genetic material, starts at discrete sites, termed origins, before proceeding at replication forks whose progression is carefully controlled in order to avoid conflicts with the transcription of genes. In eukaryotes, DNA replication occurs in the context of chromatin, a structure in which DNA is wrapped around proteins, called histones, that are subjected to various chemical modifications. Among them, the methylation of the lysine 4 of histone H3 (H3K4) is carried out by Set1 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, specifically at transcribed genes. We report that, when the replication fork accelerates in response to a reduction of active origins, the absence of Set1 leads to accumulation of DNA damage. Because H3K4 methylation was recently shown to slow down replication at transcribed genes, we propose that the Set1-dependent becomes crucial to limit the occurrence of conflicts between replication and transcription caused by replication fork acceleration. In agreement with this model, stabilization of transcription-dependent structures or reduction histone levels, to limit replication fork velocity, respectively exacerbates or moderates the effect of Set1 loss. Last, but not least, we show that the oxidative stress associated to DNA damage is partly responsible for cell lethality.


1912 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 45-53
Author(s):  
J. A. Fuller-Maitland

There are no fewer than twelve complete works of Sebastian Bach to which the name Toccata is applied, and in nearly all cases the title seems to have come from the composer himself. It is always worth while to trace, if we can, the reasons which led a great man to choose one name rather than another for his creations; and in the case of Bach, I think we are justified in supposing that the names he gave were not purely arbitrary, but were chosen for some good reason. Certain modern composers, notably Brahms, have shown a strange indifference to the effect wrought by a well-chosen name for their music. His later works for pianoforte, often grouped under the heading of “Fantasias,” are divided into “Intermezzi” and “‘Capricci” according to whether they are slow movements or fast. But Bach, with his methodical habits, never showed that kind of almost perverse nonchalance in regard to the names his works were to bear. Remember the “Partitas,” and how each of the six introductory movements had a different designation from all the rest. As a matter of fact, there is not much indication of any inner variety of structure among the six, for all are preludial in general character, and it is evidently only a whim of the composer to give the six different titles. One of these, the sixth by the way, is styled “Toccata,” but has none of the distinguishing marks which, I hope to persuade you, Bach had in his mind when he used the title for independent compositions. Mr. Albert Schweitzer in his exceedingly valuable book on Bach (I am speaking of the recent work in two volumes, translated from the French by Mr. Ernest Newman) says that these Toccatas might just as well have been called Sonatas, or by any other name. Here I cannot agree with him, and the main object of my remarks on the present occasion.is to examine into the structure and style of the pieces, and see if we cannot discern some characteristic common to them all, and not shared by any other compositions of Bach.


Extremophiles ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Böhlke ◽  
Francesca Pisani ◽  
Mosè Rossi ◽  
Garabed Antranikian

Author(s):  
A. U. Larkman ◽  
M. A. Carter

Actinia equina var. mesembryanthemum, the beadlet anemone (Stephenson, 1935), is a very common and widely distributed littoral anthozoan, whose sexual reproduction shows several interesting characteristics. Adult sea anemones of both sexes brood planulae and more advanced developmental stages within the gastrovascular cavity, although earlier embryonic stages are rarely found brooded in this way. Chia & Rostron (1970) suggest that embryos are expelled from the parent female anemone at an early stage and pass through a free-living phase before re-entering anemones of either sex for brooding. However, recent work (Cain, 1974) suggests that juvenile anemones are genetically related to the adult anemones in which they are brooded, and also the distribution of genetic material during sexual reproduction appears to be abnormal (Carter & Thorp, 1979). In an attempt to achieve a better understanding of the unusual sexual reproduction of this species, an ultrastructural investigation of gametogenesis was undertaken. This paper describes the fine structure of the spermatozoon within the testis.


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