Abstract: The kinetoplast DNA of Crithidia fasciculata is a massive network composed of thousands of topologically interlocked circles. Most of these circles are minicircles (2.5 kb), and about 50 are maxicircles (37 kb). Previous studies showed that minicircles replicate, after release from the network, via Cairns (θ) intermediates. Here we show that maxicircles replicate, while attached to the network, by an entirely different mechanism involving rolling circle intermediates. After the network-bound maxicircle has finished replication, the branch of the rolling circle is apparently cleaved off to form a linear free maxicircle. A restriction map of the linearized free maxicircles shows that these molecules have unique termini, one of which presumably corresponds to the replication origin.
Publication Year: 1984
Publication Date: 1984-02-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref', 'pubmed']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 66
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot