GENE 6: Replicating the genome Flashcards
What phase is DNA synthesised in? By what?
S phase
Replisome
What does the replisome do and what enzyme does it include?
Includes the enzyme DNA polymerase and it adds nucleotides in the 5’ to 3’ direction to a short RNA primer
What is the short RNA primer made by?
DNA primase
What splits the DNA strand in two strands for replication
DNA helicase
How many primers does the leading strand need for replication?
One
How is the lagging strand replicated?
Synthesised from multiple primers to generate Okazaki fragments, each with its own RNA primer. Each Okazaki fragment is joined to the previous one using DNA ligament, but only after another DNA polymerase degrades the RNA primer of the older Okazaki fragment while extending the 3’ end of the new adjacent fragment
When is polymerase alpha and delta used?
Alpha - lagging strand
Delta - leading strand
What is the fidelity of DNA polymerase
1 error per 10^8 bp
At what phases of the cell cycle is it important to control?
S and M phase
What happens in M-phase?
Chromosomes segregate into daughter cells
What three things must be ensured during the cell cycle?
- chromosomes are copied exactly once per S-phase
- M-phase initiates after S-phase completion
- S-phase is always preceded by M-phase
what is aneuploidy?
cells with missing, extra or rearranged chromosomes
what could failures in mitotic cells lead to?
apoptosis or mutations
what could failures in meiotic cells lead to?
inaccuracies in chromosome duplication (meiosis I) or segregation (meiosis I and II) can generate aneuploid gametes leading to sterility, developmental defects or genetic disease
What does meiotic cell division not undergo?
an intervening S phase
How does megakaryoctye cell division differ from normal?
they undergo repeated S-phases with no intervening cell divisions - this leads to high enlargement and polyploidy (upto 64 sets of chromosomes) before exploding to form platelets
what are senescent cells
Some cells exit the cell cycle during G1 to enter G0 which may represent a reversible resting phasewhich may represent a reversible resting phase, an extended or indefinite period of dormancy (called senescence), or the beginning of terminal cellular differentiation.
What can senescence happen?
One example is when telomeres become critically short and it is no longer safe for a cell to continue dividing.
Where does DNA replication start in circular chromosomes?
At the origin or replication.
How does replication work in prokaryotes?
Unwinding of the chromosome at the origin allows two replication forks to form and move in opposite directions around the chromosome until the entire chromosome is duplicated
How long does DNA replication take in prokaryotes?
30 minutes
How long does replication take in mammalian cells?
20 hours
How much faster is prokaryotic DNA polymerase than mammalian?
10x faster, 500 nucleotides per second
How is mammalian replication different from prokaryotic replication?
mammalian DNA rep is initiated from multiple origins simultaneously - 1 replication origin per 70kb
Eventually the replication bubbles within each chromosome coalesce to form a fully replicated set of chromosomes.
How do animal replication origins differ from bacteria and simple eukaryotes?
animal cells do not have a clearly conserved DNA sequence at their replication origins
What is the ‘landing pad’ for eukaryotic assembly of proteins required for DNA synthesis to bind to called?
This complex is called the origin recognition complex (ORC)
What is the origin recognition complex (ORC) made up of?
composed of 6 protein subunits (ORC1 to ORC6
What is the first step before DNA synthesis can begin?
A pre-replicative complex (preRC) is assembled in G1, a process called origin licensing
What two proteins recruit replicative helicases (inactive to begin with) to the ORC?
Cdc6 and Cdt1
What are the helicases at the during origin licensing made up of?
Mcm proteins
What comes before S phase starts?
Origin activation and firing
How is unwanted and dangerous DNA replication avoided?
Inhibitory phosphorylation of ORC, Cdt1 and Cdc6
What does origin activation require?
Not only the recruitment of multiple initiation and replication proteins (inc. DNA polymerase) but also the phosphorylation of many of these proteins
What enzyme’s activity phosphorylates the proteins needed for origin activation?
Cyclin Dependent Kinase (Cdk)
How do ORC, Cdt1 and Cdc6 become inactivated?
Cdk activity which phosphorylates and inactivates them (inhibitory phosphorylation)
How is Mcm helicase activated?
Dbf4-dependent kinase (DDK).
Once completion of S phase has occurred - what’s next?
Entry into G2 phase
What’s wrong with re-licensing?
it would eventually overwhelm the replication machinery - lead to DNA damage/instability/death/oncogenesis
How is firing no more than once per S-phase ensured?
Use of the same kinase activity both to promote origin firing and to inactivate these origin licensing components
When must origin relicensing be suppressed?
G2, M-phase until newly replicated chromosomes have been successfully segregated
What additional mechanisms have evolved to prevent unwanted origin licensing?
binding and inactivation of Cdt1 by geminin, a protein that accumulates in S and G2
What must a replication bubble fuse with before replication can begin? (before S-phase can be completed)
two others
What is different about mammalian and prokaryotic origins of DNA replication except for the number of them?
Mammalian origins of DNA usually don’t have conserved DNA sequences