Signals for the Initiation and Termination of Synthesis of the Viral Strand of Bacteriophage f1
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
Excerpt
DNA replication of the filamentous, single-stranded DNA bacteriophage f1 (M13, fd) requires two steps, one for the synthesis of the minus (complementary) strand and one for the plus (viral) strand (Eisenberg et al. 1976; Horiuchi and Zinder 1976). Synthesis of the complementary (minus) strand by the host enzymes proceeds unidirectionally from a unique origin (minus origin) (Horiuchi and Zinder 1976; Geider et al. 1978) to generate a double-stranded, circular, superhelical molecule (RFI), which, in turn, serves as template for plus-strand synthesis.
Synthesis of the viral (plus) strand is initiated by the introduction of a nick at a specific site (plus origin) on the plus strand of the RFI molecule by the action of the viral-gene-II protein (Meyer et al. 1979). Elongation of the 3′ end of the nick is accompanied by displacement of the plus strand via a rolling-circle mechanism (Gilbert and Dressier 1969). After one round of plus-strand synthesis,...
