Abstract
The first obligatory step for replication of duplex DNA is strand separation. Duplex melting (unwinding) leading to initiation of bacterial chromosome replication normally occurs at a fixed site on the chromosome termed oriC. This local duplex unwinding is effected by specific binding of an initiator, DnaA protein encoded by the dnaA gene, to 9-bp repeated sequences (DnaA boxes) which are clustered within the oriC site. The DnaA box sequence and the amino acid sequence of DnaA protein are evolutionarily well conserved among eubacteria. Furthermore, with a few exceptions, most eubacteria have a gene arrangement in which the oriC region is located next to the dnaA gene. The arrangements of several genes in the vicinity of dnaA are also well conserved. The evolutionary conservation of the DnaA protein and DnaA box sequences suggests that the initiation mechanism for chromosome replication in eubacteria has been largely conserved. In this chapter, the structures of the oriC sites for several species of eubacteria are reviewed. At least in E. coli, two other normally repressed chromosome replication systems are activated under certain specific conditions. The origins (oriM and oriK) of these alternative forms of replication are also summarized. The readers are referred to recent reviews for more details of the subjects (Messer and Weigel, 1996; Skarstad and Boye, 1994; Yoshikawa and Ogasawara, 1991; Asai and Kogoma, 1994).
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Kogoma, T. (1998). Origins of Chromosome Replication. In: de Bruijn, F.J., Lupski, J.R., Weinstock, G.M. (eds) Bacterial Genomes. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-6369-3_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-6369-3_7
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