Toward an understanding of the DNA replication initiation in bacteria

Katarzyna Wegrzyn; Igor Konieczny

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1328842

Toward an understanding of the DNA replication initiation in bacteria

Front Microbiol. 2024 Jan 5:14:1328842. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1328842. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Katarzyna Wegrzyn¹, Igor Konieczny¹

Affiliation

¹ Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology of University of Gdansk and Medical University of Gdansk, University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland.

Abstract

Although the mechanism of DNA replication initiation has been investigated for over 50 years, many important discoveries have been made related to this process in recent years. In this mini-review, we discuss the current state of knowledge concerning the structure of the origin region in bacterial chromosomes and plasmids, recently discovered motifs recognized by replication initiator proteins, and proposed in the literature models describing initial origin opening. We review structures of nucleoprotein complexes formed by replication initiators at chromosomal and plasmid replication origins and discuss their functional implications. We also discuss future research challenges in this field.

Keywords: DNA unwinding element; DnaA; Rep proteins; loop-back model; origin opening; two-state model.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was funded by the Polish National Science Centre grant [2017/26/D/NZ1/00239] to KW and [2021/43/B/NZ1/01360] to IK.