Related papers: Global regulation of genome duplication in eukaryo…
Eukaryotic cells are often exposed to fluctuations in growth conditions as well as endogenous and exogenous stress-related agents. In addition, during development global patterns of gene transcription change dramatically, and these changes…
Background: In Escherichia coli, overlapping rounds of DNA replication allow the bacteria to double in faster times than the time required to copy the genome. The precise timing of initiation of DNA replication is determined by a regulatory…
DNA replication is an essential process in biology and its timing must be robust so that cells can divide properly. Random fluctuations in the formation of replication starting points, called origins, and the subsequent activation of…
Biological cells replicate their genomes in a well-planned manner. The DNA replication program of an organism determines the timing at which different genomic regions are replicated, with fundamental consequences for cell homeostasis and…
Eukaryotic DNA replication follows a specific temporal program, with some genomic regions consistently replicating earlier than others, yet what determines this program is largely unknown. Highly transcribed regions have been observed to…
Background: Duplication of genes is important for evolution of molecular networks. Many authors have therefore considered gene duplication as a driving force in shaping the topology of molecular networks. In particular it has been noted…
Gene duplication is a fundamental evolutionary mechanism that contributes to biological complexity and diversity (Fortna et al., 2004). Traditionally, research has focused on the duplication of gene sequences (Zhang, 1914). However,…
The bacterium Escherichia coli initiates replication once per cell cycle at a precise volume per origin and adds an on average constant volume between successive initiation events, independent of the initiation size. Yet, a molecular model…
The formation of DNA loops by proteins and protein complexes that bind at distal DNA sites plays a central role in many cellular processes, such as transcription, recombination, and replication. Here we review the basic thermodynamic…
Genome replication, a key process for a cell, relies on stochastic initiation by replication origins, causing a variability of replication timing from cell to cell. While stochastic models of eukaryotic replication are widely available, the…
Replication of genetic material is an important process for all living organisms. Origins of replication initiate the copying of DNA at many points on a chromosome, and it is the distribution of these points that is relevant here, as it…
A correlation between karyotype diversity and species richness was first observed in mammals in 1980, and subsequently confirmed after controlling for phylogenetic signal. The correlation was attributed to submicroscopic factors, presumably…
We formulate a kinetic model of DNA replication that quantitatively describes recent results on DNA replication in the in vitro system of Xenopus laevis prior to the mid-blastula transition. The model describes well a large amount of…
We study theoretically the replication of Kinetoplast DNA consisting of several thousands separate mini-circles found in organisms of the class Kinetoplastida. When the cell is not actively dividing these are topologically connected in a…
Genome organization in eukaryotes during interphase stems from the delicate balance between non-random correlations present in the DNA polynucleotide linear sequence and the physico/chemical reactions which shape continuously the form and…
The metazoan genome is replicated in precise cell lineage specific temporal order. However, the mechanism controlling this orchestrated process is poorly understood as no molecular mechanisms have been identified that actively regulate the…
Background: The evolution of microRNA regulation in metazoans is a mysterious process: MicroRNA sequences are highly conserved among distal organisms, but on the other hand, there is no evident conservation of their targets. Results: We…
Genome length varies widely among organisms, from compact genomes of prokaryotes to vast and complex genomes of eukaryotes. In this study, we theoretically identify the evolutionary pressures that may have driven this divergence in genome…
Turnover of regulatory sequence and function is an important part of molecular evolution. But what are the modes of sequence evolution leading to rapid formation and loss of regulatory sites? Here, we show that a large fraction of…
Initiating replication synchronously at multiple origins of replication allows the bacterium Escherichia coli to divide even faster than the time it takes to replicate the entire chromosome in nutrient-rich environments. What mechanisms…