Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
Sci China Life Sci. 2012 May;55(5):386-403. doi: 10.1007/s11427-012-4324-9. Epub 2012 May 27.
Archaea, the third domain of life, are interesting organisms to study from the aspects of molecular and evolutionary biology. Archaeal cells have a unicellular ultrastructure without a nucleus, resembling bacterial cells, but the proteins involved in genetic information processing pathways, including DNA replication, transcription, and translation, share strong similarities with those of Eukaryota. Therefore, archaea provide useful model systems to understand the more complex mechanisms of genetic information processing in eukaryotic cells. Moreover, the hyperthermophilic archaea provide very stable proteins, which are especially useful for the isolation of replisomal multicomplexes, to analyze their structures and functions. This review focuses on the history, current status, and future directions of archaeal DNA replication studies.
古菌，生命的第三域，是分子和进化生物学研究的有趣生物体。古菌的细胞具有无核的单细胞超微结构，类似于细菌细胞，但参与遗传信息处理途径的蛋白质，包括 DNA 复制、转录和翻译，与真核生物有很强的相似性。因此，古菌为了解真核细胞中更复杂的遗传信息处理机制提供了有用的模型系统。此外，嗜热古菌提供了非常稳定的蛋白质，这些蛋白质特别有助于分离复制多复合物，以分析它们的结构和功能。本综述重点介绍古菌 DNA 复制研究的历史、现状和未来方向。
