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. 1974 Feb;71(2):329–333. doi: 10.1073/pnas.71.2.329

Size Distribution and Molecular Polarity of Newly Replicated DNA in Escherichia coli

Jean-Michel Louarn 1,*, Robert E Bird 1
PMCID: PMC387997  PMID: 4592688

Abstract

Newly synthesized DNA, in E. coli lysogenic for the phage λ, was labeled by short pulses of [3H]-thymidine, isolated, and separated on the basis of size by alkaline sucrose density gradient centrifugation. The molecular polarity of this DNA was determined by hybridization with each of the separated strands of λ DNA. The results show that, in the 3′ to 5′ direction, replication proceeds by synthesis of short chains that are subsequently joined to long DNA. This is true for both a polA+ and a polA- strain. (The polA locus codes for DNA polymerase I.) In the 5′ to 3′ direction, replication proceeds continuously, by addition of nucleotides to long DNA, for the polA+ strain. In the polA- strain, however, replication in the 5′ to 3′ direction is also discontinuous, but the discontinuities are 1-40 times less frequent than in the other direction.

Keywords: DNA biosynthesis, discontinuous replication, DNA·DNA hybridization, polA- mutant, nascent DNA

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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