Archaeal DNA Replication.

It is now well recognized that the information processing machineries of archaea are far more closely related to those of eukaryotes than to those of their prokaryotic cousins, the bacteria. Extensive studies have been performed on the structure and function of the archaeal DNA replication origins, the proteins that define them, and the macromolecular assemblies that drive DNA unwinding and nascent strand synthesis. The results from various archaeal organisms across the archaeal domain of life show surprising levels of diversity at many levels—ranging from cell cycle organization to chromosome ploidy to replication mode and nature of the replicative polymerases. In the following, we describe recent advances in the field, highlighting conserved features and lineage-specific innovations.

现在人们已经充分认识到，古菌的信息处理机制与真核生物的信息处理机制的关系，远比与它们的原核近亲细菌的更为密切。人们已经对古菌DNA复制起点的结构和功能、界定这些起点的蛋白质，以及驱动DNA解旋和新生链合成的大分子复合物进行了广泛的研究。来自古菌域中各种古菌生物的研究结果在许多层面上都显示出令人惊讶的多样性——从细胞周期组织到染色体倍性，再到复制模式以及复制聚合酶的性质。在下文中，我们将描述该领域的最新进展，重点介绍保守特征和特定谱系的创新。