Figure EV5. OriL is the only stem loop that can drive efficient primer generation by mtRNAP.

1. Putative stem loops found in the light strand of human mtDNA. The size of the stem and the loop of the hairpins, and the stability of the hairpins (ΔG) are indicated. Dark blue dots indicate stem loops that satisfy the topological requirements to serve as a potential template for transcription.
2. Stability of the stem loops found in human mtDNA as a function of the stem length. Stability of stem loops (−ΔG) found in human mtDNA as a function of the stem length. Light blue dots—stem loops that have a “disallowed” number of nucleotides in the loop (< 10 or more than 16). Note that neither of these stem loops, except OriL, encodes a stretch of the dTMP residues required for efficient transcription and primer generation.