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Within eukaryotes, DNA replication is controlled within the context of the cell cycle. As the cell grows and divides, it progresses through stages in the cell cycle; DNA replication takes place during the S phase (synthesis phase). The progress of the eukaryotic cell through the cycle is controlled by cell cycle checkpoints.
In bacterial DNA replication, regulation focuses on the binding of the DnaA initiator protein to the DNA, with initiation of replication occurring multiple times during one cell cycle. [93] Both prokaryotic and eukaryotic DNA use ATP binding and hydrolysis to direct helicase loading and in both cases the helicase is loaded in the inactive form.
This results in a structurally functional helicase able to facilitate transcription, however it inhibits its function in unwinding DNA and DNA repair. [38] The lack of a cell's ability to repair mutations, such as those caused by sun damage, is the cause of the high cancer rate in xeroderma pigmentosa patients.
Before DNA replication can start, the pre-replicative complex assembles at origins to load helicase onto DNA. The complex assembles in late mitosis and early G1. Assembly of these pre-replicative complexes (pre-RCs) is regulated in a manner that coordinates DNA replication with the cell cycle. [6]
All eukaryotes possess many more replication origins than strictly needed during one cycle of DNA replication. [5] Redundant origins may increase the flexibility of DNA replication, allowing cells to control the rate of DNA synthesis and respond to replication stress.
The large genome sizes of eukaryotic cells, which range from 12 Mbp in S. cerevisiae to more than 100 Gbp in some plants, necessitates that DNA replication starts at several hundred (in budding yeast) to tens of thousands (in humans) origins to complete DNA replication of all chromosomes during each cell cycle.
The minichromosome maintenance protein complex (MCM) is a DNA helicase essential for genomic DNA replication. Eukaryotic MCM consists of six gene products, Mcm2–7, which form a heterohexamer. [1] [2] As a critical protein for cell division, MCM is also the target of various checkpoint pathways, such as the S-phase entry and S-phase arrest ...
DNA is a duplex formed by two anti-parallel strands. Following Meselson-Stahl, the process of DNA replication is semi-conservative, whereby during replication the original DNA duplex is separated into two daughter strands (referred to as the leading and lagging strand templates). Each daughter strand becomes part of a new DNA duplex.