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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1974 Jun;71(6):2445–2448. doi: 10.1073/pnas.71.6.2445

Replication of the Escherichia coli Chromosome Following Thymine Starvation

J C Liebart 1, A Buu 1, H Marcovich 1
PMCID: PMC388474  PMID: 4601589

Abstract

The replication of the chromosome of E. coli 15T- (thymine-requiring) has been followed for approximately four generations after a premature initiation of DNA synthesis by thymine starvation. Various labelings of the DNA with 14C, 3H, and density media allowed discrimination of the strands preexistent to thymine starvation from those which were made during the subsequent generations. Results were: (1) There is very little, if any, DNA degradation following 45 min of thymine starvation. (2) The growing points which existed prior to thymine starvation proceeded to the end of the chromosomes after resumption of DNA synthesis and then disappeared. (3) The premature DNA synthesis initiated by thymine starvation involved, symmetrically, all free origins; the entire chromosomal population was subjected to this process. (4) All the DNA which was synthesized during the progression of the premature growing points was normally replicated, i.e., with no delay or loss, during the next three generations.

Keywords: initiation of replication, density labeling, chromosome synthesis

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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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