Classes of autonomously replicating sequences are found among early-replicating monkey DNA.

Thirteen new independent clones of origin-enriched sequences (ors) that are capable of autonomous replication have been identified from a library of 100 ors i clones that had been previously isolated from early replicating monkey (CV-1) DNA. Autonomous replication was assayed by transient episomal replication in transfected HeLa cells; ors-plasmid DNA was isolated at various times after transfection and screened by the DpnI resistance assay and the bromodeoxyuridine (BrdUrd) substitution assay to differentiate between input and newly replicated DNA. Four of the autonomously replicating clones were identified by screening the ors-library with probes of ors 3, 8, 9 and 12, previously shown to be capable of autonomous replication (Frappier and Zannis-Hadjopoulos, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (1987) 84, 6668-6672). The other nine functional ors clones were identified among 18 randomly chosen ones, which were similarly screened for autonomous replication. Nucleotide sequence analyses of 11 of the newly identified functional ors plasmids revealed, in most of them, features similar to those present in other viral or eukaryotic replication origins, notably the presence of AT-rich regions and inverted repeats. Pairwise comparisons between the newly identified ors showed no extensive sequence homologies, other than the presence of the alpha-satellite repetitive sequence family in three ors and of the repetitive Alu sequence family in one ors. The results suggest that there exist different classes of mammalian replication origin, highly or moderately repetitive and unique, and that their activation is most probably dependent on the presence of structural determinants rather than on a particular sequence.