Herrick John, Jun Suckjoon, Bechhoefer John, Bensimon Aaron
Unité de Stabilité des Génomes, Département Structure et Dynamique des Génomes, Institut Pasteur, 25-28 rue du Dr Roux, 75724 Paris Cedex 15, France.
J Mol Biol. 2002 Jul 19;320(4):741-50. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(02)00522-3.
We formulate a kinetic model of DNA replication that quantitatively describes recent results on DNA replication in the in vitro system of Xenopus laevis prior to the mid-blastula transition. The model describes well a large amount of different data within a simple theoretical framework. This allows one, for the first time, to determine the parameters governing the DNA replication program in a eukaryote on a genome-wide basis. In particular, we have determined the frequency of origin activation in time and space during the cell cycle. Although we focus on a specific stage of development, this model can easily be adapted to describe replication in many other organisms, including budding yeast.
