Relationship between scaffold-attached regions, sequences replicating autonomously in yeast, and a chromosomal replication origin in the Drosophila rDNA.

The potential relationship between anchorage of Drosophila rDNA to a nuclear substructure and replication mechanisms was studied. First, two scaffold-attached regions (SARs) were identified, in the internally transcribed spacer and in the region spanning both the intergenic spacer (IGS) and the externally transcribed spacer (ETS), respectively. These SARs define two possible loops containing the sequence coding for the 18S rRNA and part of that coding for the 28S rRNA, respectively. They also bind yeast scaffolds. Then, the presence of sequences able to promote extrachromosomal replication in yeast (ARSs) was tested. The identified ARSs comap with SARs. The tight relationship between SARs and ARSs was further investigated in the IGS-ETS region which contains a chromosomal replication origin. The topological correlation observed between SARs, ARSs, and a chromosomal replication origin suggests the physical association of the replication origin to the nuclear substructure.