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The importance of repairing stalled replication forks

Nature volume 404, pages 37–41 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

The bacterial SOS response to unusual levels of DNA damage has been recognized and studied for several decades. Pathways for re-establishing inactivated replication forks under normal growth conditions have received far less attention. In bacteria growing aerobically in the absence of SOS-inducing conditions, many replication forks encounter DNA damage, leading to inactivation. The pathways for fork reactivation involve the homologous recombination systems, are nonmutagenic, and integrate almost every aspect of DNA metabolism. On a frequency-of-use basis, these pathways represent the main function of bacterial DNA recombination systems, as well as the main function of a number of other enzymatic systems that are associated with replication and site-specific recombination.

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Figure 1: Some potential pathways for the nonmutagenic re-establishment of inactivated replication forks in bacteria.
Figure 2: Creation and resolution of contiguous chromosomal dimers as a byproduct of the recombination required for re-establishment of inactivated replication forks.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, 53706-1544 , Wisconsin, USA

    Michael M. Cox

  2. Departments of Biological Sciences and Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 90089-1340, California, USA

    Myron F. Goodman

  3. Department of Microbiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, 27710, North Carolina, USA

    Kenneth N. Kreuzer

  4. Division of Molecular Genetics, Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3QU , UK

    David J. Sherratt

  5. Department of Microbiology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 01003, Massachusetts, USA

    Steven J. Sandler

  6. Molecular Biology Program, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, 10021, New York, USA

    Kenneth J. Marians

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Cox, M., Goodman, M., Kreuzer, K. et al. The importance of repairing stalled replication forks. Nature 404, 37–41 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35003501

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