Department of Medical Biochemistry and Cell Biology, University of Gothenburg, P.O. Box 440, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden.
EMBO Rep. 2012 Dec;13(12):1130-7. doi: 10.1038/embor.2012.161. Epub 2012 Oct 23.
The mechanisms of mitochondrial DNA replication have been hotly debated for a decade. The strand-displacement model states that lagging-strand DNA synthesis is initiated from the origin of light-strand DNA replication (OriL), whereas the strand-coupled model implies that OriL is dispensable. Mammalian mitochondria cannot be transfected and the requirements of OriL in vivo have therefore not been addressed. We here use in vivo saturation mutagenesis to demonstrate that OriL is essential for mtDNA maintenance in the mouse. Biochemical and bioinformatic analyses show that OriL is functionally conserved in vertebrates. Our findings strongly support the strand-displacement model for mtDNA replication.
线粒体 DNA 复制的机制已经争论了十年。链置换模型表明,滞后链 DNA 合成是从轻链 DNA 复制原点(OriL)开始的,而链偶联模型则暗示 OriL 是可有可无的。哺乳动物的线粒体不能被转染,因此体内 OriL 的需求尚未得到解决。我们在这里使用体内饱和诱变来证明 OriL 对小鼠 mtDNA 的维持是必不可少的。生化和生物信息学分析表明,OriL 在脊椎动物中具有功能保守性。我们的发现强烈支持线粒体 DNA 复制的链置换模型。