Skip Navigation


Nucleic Acids Research Advance Access originally published online on February 10, 2009
Nucleic Acids Research 2009 37(6):1991-2002; doi:10.1093/nar/gkp063
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow Print PDF (6350K) Freely available
Right arrow Screen PDF (708K) Freely available
Right arrow Supplementary Data
Right arrowOA All Versions of this Article:
37/6/1991    most recent
gkp063v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Commercial Re-use Guidelines
for Open Access NAR Content
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Leung, S. K.
Right arrow Articles by Wong, J. T. Y.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Leung, S. K.
Right arrow Articles by Wong, J. T. Y.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Nucleic Acids Research, 2009, Vol. 37, No. 6 1991-2002
© 2009 The Author(s)
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Molecular Biology

The replication of plastid minicircles involves rolling circle intermediates

Siu Kai Leung and Joseph T. Y. Wong*

Department of Biology, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, P.R. China

*To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +852 23587343; Fax: +852 23581559; Email: botin{at}ust.hk

Received September 21, 2008. Revised January 23, 2009. Accepted January 23, 2009.

Plastid genomes of peridinin-containing dinoflagellates are unique in that its genes are found on multiple circular DNA molecules known as ‘minicircles’ of ~2–3 kb in size, carrying from one to three genes. The non-coding regions (NCRs) of these minicircles share a conserved core region (250–500 bp) that are AT-rich and have several inverted or direct repeats. Southern blot analysis using an NCR probe, after resolving a dinoflagellate whole DNA extract in pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), revealed additional positive bands (APBs) of 6–8 kb in size. APBs preferentially diminished from cells treated with the DNA-replication inhibitor aphidicolin, when compared with 2–3 kb minicircles, implicating they are not large minicircles. The APBs are also exonuclease III-sensitive, implicating the presence of linear DNA. These properties and the migration pattern of the APBs in a 2D-gel electrophoresis were in agreement with a rolling circle type of replication, rather than the bubble-forming type. Atomic force microscopy of 6–8 kb DNA separated by PFGE revealed DNA intermediates with rolling circle shapes. Accumulating data thus supports the involvement of rolling circle intermediates in the replication of the minicircles.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.